In Music News

They arrive on a sunny day
Offering the residents a better way
Before you know it you're in line
And chanting refrain
They reel you in and then they drown you out -- The Face

Clutch dropped Earth Rocker last month, so I've only listened to it about 20 times so far. I'll keep this review short and sweet -- it's excellent. Best straight-ahead, balls-to-the-wall, no-holds-barred rawk album of the year so far. You could maybe throw last year in as well.

The usual "all killer, no filler" schtick actually applies here, it's a concise set, clocking in at just under 45 minutes. But powered by Neil Fallon's primal roar, Tim Sult's powerful riffing, and the tragically underrated rhythm section of Dan Maines and Jean-Yves Guster, they make every second count, from the "if it isn't live it doesn't matter" ethos of the title track to the propulsive aggression of Unto the Breach to the pseudocryptic The Wolf Man Kindly Requests, they deliver huge. Fallon is one of rock's better storytellers, and he's in rare form throughout. This is easily Clutch's best album since the epic Blast Tyrant (and I really liked Strange Cousins from the West).

In an earlier, more innocent time, I would have said something to the effect that this would be the album that catapults Clutch into the rock stratosphere. I give up on such assessments; I have no clue what people consider when picking the theme music for banging milfs (or whatever they hell they do for their dining and dancing pleasure). All I know is that I've been rockin' the mike for untold centuries, and this is the real fuckin' deal. Go out and get it yesterday.