Yakuza, Emetic, Making Ghosts, Couldron
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That’s not to say Yakuza is anything but a metal band at heart. Though the songs frequently detour into evocative atmospheric passages–sometimes lush and humid, sometimes stark and barren–there’s no shortage of chugging distorted guitar or tortured, slate gray vocals. “Obviously we all have a foundation in metal,” says drummer Jim Staffel. “But we’re all just music fans.” During long tour drives the Yakuza van rocks a lot of Slayer and Kyuss, a lot of Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra, and a bit of Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed. “There’s maybe a handful of bands that we’re all collectively like, ‘Wow, this is amazing,’” explains front man Bruce Lamont. “I think we all have a band that the rest of us don’t like,” adds guitarist Matt McClelland. Bassist John Bomher, whose only contribution to the conversation has been to state his name for the record, nods. He looks like he’d rather be playing. They all do.
To be fair, we’re talking in their practice room, which by design isn’t much of a hangout spot. They got rid of the couch to help them focus–just about the only thing you can’t make noise with is the pentagram poster. It’s a functional space befitting a band of workaholics. Formed in 1999, Yakuza released their full-length debut, Amount to Nothing, less than a year after they started rehearsing. “I think Bruce was in the band for two months before we made that first record,” says Staffel. “I think we actually did a four-day tour in a pickup truck before it was even printed.”
I don’t have any suggestions. Transmutations is a strange album. The opening track, “Meat Curtains,” alternates between grim sludge–like Mogwai trying to approximate doom metal–and spastic multimetrical thrash, delivering artsy textures and avant-metal kicks in equal doses. The next cut, “Egocide,” starts with three mellow minutes–African-inspired percussion, clean vocals, a keening sax part that could almost pass for Middle Eastern smooth jazz–then bursts into knotty, high-speed riffage and Cookie Monster yowls. I can imagine an audience for the world-jazz parts of “Egocide” and another for its metal parts–the band plays them equally well–but I’m not sure how many people want both in one song.
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