Tomahawk
Tomahawk
Ipecac Recordings
Lineup:
Mike Patton – vocals
Duane Denison – guitars
Kevin Rutmanis – bass
John Stanier - drums
The supergroup featuring Mike Patton (ex-Faith No More, Mr.
Bungle, Peeping Tom, Fantomas, Lovage, solo work, Maldoror, etc.), Duane
Denison (Jesus Lizard, Hank Williams III), Kevin Rutmanis (Cows, Melvins), and
John Stanier (Helmet) went above and beyond expectations with their debut
release, in 2001, a year where several supergroups had huge releases. Unlike
most projects featuring Mike Patton on vocals, this band is a more
straightforward rock band with a little bit of the typical Patton strangeness
thrown in there. The albums starts off with “Flashback”, a song that starts off
fairly mellow, at least nothing really exciting, but then quickly builds into
an assault on the ears before dying down and building back up all over again.
Overall, the song has a great melody to it and plenty of hooks, especially with
the background electronics to keep you interested. A very good song. “101
North” follows that up, another song that starts off rather softly and really
never builds up, but instead you slam into the climax of the song like a car
flying into a brick wall. The majority of the song features Patton using his
deeper singing voice instead of yelling, minus the pre-chorus which he speaks
through, then does more of his yelling singing voice for the chorus. The chorus
is one of the features of the song, featuring some nice syncopation in the percussion
section by John Stanier. Another great song for similar reasons to the previous
song. “Point and Click” follows that up, a song that never does get overly fast
or exciting, rather staying somewhat strange but at the same time beautiful.
Another excellent melody with more great hooks. “God Hates a Coward” follows
that up, a song with an unbelievably catchy melody in the chorus, and the
verses are just about as entertaining, building up to the chorus very well. A
song where Patton is able to go a little crazy, but not without remaining
somewhat reserved at the same time. Excellent song again. “POP 1” is the next
tune, a song that starts off very softly before going out of control with a
chorus consisting of the one line, “This beat could win me a grammy!” Repeated
over and over again. The song is pretty entertaining though, not anything that
could be listened to for too long of a time, but something still pretty good,
kinda catchy as well. “Sweet Smell of Success” is next, a song that is much
more reserved than its predecessor, going at a pretty calm pace for quite some
time, in fact, the entire song remains pretty well reserved with the chorus
having slightly more energy to it than the verses. A great melody though and
several different great melodies at that, a very good song without a doubt.
“Sir Yes Sir” follows that up by bringing the album back to complete insanity,
starting off with more of a mischievous sound before exploding into complete
insanity for the chorus, but not forgetting to throw hooks into the song. A
very well done song. “Jockstrap” follows that up, a song that actually starts
off with more of a classy sound despite the lyrics speaking of things like
jockstraps and g-strings, things I consider classy, but I guess very few others
do. Anyway, the song then busts out into an attack of screams and such where
Mike Patton shows that his voice is able to reach inhuman levels of frequency,
and does it ever, going higher than any man or woman that I’ve ever heard in my
life. “Cul de Sac” follows that up, a song that again brings the energy level
way down, a very bluesy sound, great melody and a great sound as it’s made to
sound like it is being played on an old radio or just as background. Excellent
melody again though, a very catchy guitar part as well and the percussion
sounds great as well in the background. “Malocchio” is the next track, bringing
the excitement back from the very start. This is another song with some really
cool electronic sounds, a catchy verse to it, and a chorus that is even more
catchy. Just another overall great song on this album. “Honeymoon” follows that
up, starting off pretty slowly and never really going too out of control (wow,
that seems to be the case with every other song on this album). Anyway, this
song is another song with a great melody to it, you know, like every other song
on this album. “Laredo” follows up, another fast song to follow up a slower
song. This is probably one of the most catchy songs on the album, being the
first song that I could really recognize very well. A fun song to listen to,
this one isn’t all out insanity though, in fact, the only parts where it gets
really crazy are during the refrain and during the guitar solo (then again, you
have to be listening to all parts in the song to really recognize that). The
finale comes in the form of “Narcosis”, a somewhat chilling song, much slower
and with a low pitched chant that repeats many times for the chorus, or what I
think is the chorus. Almost a southern twang to this song, a really cool sound
if you ask me, another song that’s easy to recognize. Pretty cool way to end a
CD as well if you ask me. Don’t get my song summaries wrong here. While the
songs really seem to be fast or slow, the melodies in each of the songs are
very different and they are fast or slow or crazy or mellow or whatever in
completely different ways. Each song on this album has its own charm to it, and
each song on this album is very good. This is quite the outstanding album, one
of the very underrated releases of 2001. Nothing but superb musicianship
throughout. A must own album.
The sound quality on this is done perfectly. Being more of a
straightforward rock album, it is left pretty raw, and even when the
electronics are added to certain songs, they’re still left pretty raw, leaving
a pretty cool sound. Overall very well done.
This is a great album. There isn’t a weak spot on the entire
album. This is what a supergroup should be. It’s really hard to top something
like this as this is a 93 out of 100.
Track listing
1.
Flackback
2.
101 North
3.
Point and Click
4.
God Hates a Coward
5.
POP 1
6.
Sweet Smell of Success
7.
Sir Yes Sir
8.
Jockstrap
9.
Cul de Sac
10. Malocchio
11. Honeymoon
12. Laredo
13. Narcosis
Ipecac Records
Lineup:
Mike Patton – vocals
Duane Denison – guitars
Kevin Rutmanis – bass
John Stanier – drums
One of the greatest supergroups of all time drops its status of
supergroup and just becomes a great group with this CD. The first Tomahawk CD
was great, but it left you with the feeling that you were hearing a supergroup.
This CD is even better and it gives the feeling you are listening to a serious
band, not a supergroup, just a real band. The artwork on the album alone is
enough to buy the CD. A luxurious gold design over a black background, it’s
absolutely amazing, and all for an album that translates in English to “With
Gas”. The album itself though well deserves the beautiful artwork as it’s a
great album in itself. The opening song, “Birdsong” gets you off to a unique,
but melodic and interesting start. More of a straightforward rock song with
bird sound effects throughout most of the song. Great chorus to it and a great
pre-chorus that builds up well. The verses aren’t bad either. “Rape This Day”
comes next and is actually the first song I heard off of the album. It was
available long before the album was released on the internet, and the fact that
it sold this CD to me says enough in itself. The song has a great melody and is
just an overall great song. “You Can’t Win”, yet another amazing song follows
that up. By this point you begin to really get the feel of the album. Not as
much of a difference in songs as the first album where one song would be soft
and the next one hard, these songs are more in between for most of the album,
just great hard rock songs throughout. “Mayday” is a great example of that.
“Capt. Midnight” is another example, and like many of the songs on the CD, this
is a great example of a song that has a great buildup during it. “Dissastre
Natural” is an example of how while most of the album may be in between the two
different song levels from the first album, there are still some soft songs and
some harder ones, this one being one of the softer ones, still a great song.
“When the Stars Begin to Fall”, “Harelip”, “Harlem Clowns”, and “Aktion F1413”
all do a great job at keeping you entertained, to say the least. In fact,
they’re all amazing songs, but so I don’t sound TOO repetitive, I’ll spare you
all the same old for every song. Just trust me, every song on this album is
great; there’s no doubt about it. Like I said before, this is the album that,
at least in my opinion, set Tomahawk apart from being a supergroup into being
their own group. It’s just a straightforward solid rock album, of course with
some of the strange quirky things that you can expect from the bands where
Tomahawk members come from. Excellent work.
The sound quality on this is pretty well done, but again, not
overdone. Again, I don’t want to sound repetitive, so yeah, it’s probably the
best that could’ve been done for this album.
This is another masterpiece from another band fronted by Mike
Patton, and another masterpiece from another band with Duane Denison, Kevin
Rutmanis, or John Stanier. It really put Tomahawk up to the next level and
really set the standards higher for every band out there. Amazing piece of
work. Out of 100, this easily lands a 95.
Track listing
1.
Birdsong
2.
Rape This Day
3.
You Can’t Win
4.
Mayday
5.
Rotgut
6.
Capt. Midnight
7.
Dissastre Natural
8.
When the Stars Begin to Fall
9.
Harelip
10. Harlem Clowns
11. Aktion F1413
Band avg. score - 94
