So Instant Witness is back, loud and proud Moody and the boys have a new album out and it rocks. These guys are some of the most hardcore garage rockers I know and this album shows them at their finest with lots of fun tracks in the stile of The Hives. The guitars are rude and blaring, they have riffs which blow my head off. The bass is a thing of its own, their bassist has some really amazing fills and they really come over well. The drums are enthusiastic and powerful and have a great vibe to them. Finally the vocals have a hectic and wild feel that makes the music just come across beautifully. All in all, the latest effort of Instant Witness is as brain exploding and fun as the last. And it all starts with some wicked guitars.
The guitar intro to the album's first tracks “Does your Heart Go Boom?” tells you right away that this is going to be a fun guitar album, and it is. The riffs here are mostly garage rock in style and are powerful in their simplicity. In some ways I am reminded of The Who, but these guys are a lot heavier. The guitars have a very loose style and a crazy attack, in terms of the sheer punkness and aggression I am reminded in some ways of The Sex Pistols. In short the riffs are mostly classic punk influenced with some nice little bluesy variants tossed in to add flavor. My only complaint is a lack of solos as the solos on the last record were really fun.
The bassist of Instant Witness is Matt Shuckert and he s truly phenominal. He has some really cool fills on this record. Instant Witness has a very live sound and some of these bass fills simply blow the mind. While there are as not as many fills as on the last album there are still some good things here. One of my favorite bass parts on this record is in the song Dharma Disaster. Where a bluesy bass fill becomes the mainstay of the track. The powerful bass is one of the things that helps give the music its cool classic rock feel. As a rhythm player Matt does very well, a good example of this is in the track Love Is a Chemical.
The drums on this record are very reminiscent of bands like Black Sabbath. Chris Taylor (isn't that a football player?) tends to use his cymbals a lot to make the music feel crashing and wild. Another drummer I might compare Chris to is Meg White, except he has more a lot more skill. I feel that this is really well done and gives a lot more energy to the songs than if he had just battered wild 16ths on the toms. The drums are really amazing when you listen to them and only them, Chris has a lot of technical skill and he really shines on this album.
Singer Mack Kernan... dear God, I love this man. He has a good voice, but it becomes amazing because he holds absolutely nothing back. He goes forward and conquers. There is a raw energy in Kernan's voice that makes him a god among men. The shrieking power in his voice is reminiscent of Little Richard. This album shows Kernan going a lot crazier than he ever went on No Way No How. Kernan has gone completely insane and this album features him letting it all out. It's awesome. My only problem with it is that the production is sometimes off and we lose his vocals under the waves of guitar sound. His lyrics are typical punk lyrics and when they make sense they're typically about love or rebellion, in short, very fun.
So lets wrap it up, Noise Gunk Murder Castle is definitely worth listening too, again and again and again if at all possible. The guitars are roaring, the bass has tons of fills the drums are energetic and the vocals are beastly. This record is more than worth a listen, its what you should listen to all day. All in all this is a sick album with all the awesomeness that makes Instant Witness, and now that I have had a few listen I feel confident in rating it.
OVERALL 9.75/10
They're awesome!!!
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