No Light To See. The Slow Death

No Light To See is Minneapolis band The Slow Death's fifth album. It's this blog's first, after reviewing single 'I'll Be Fine' recently. The short version of this review could be, if you like Social Distortion, The Hold Steady and The Living End (without the rockabilly) then go out and buy No Light To See. I do would like to use up a little bit more of your time though.

The Slow Death manages to cook up a storm. A very distinctive feature of the band is the warm Hammond B3 sound that  weaves itself through the songs. No matter how loud a song is, like in that already mentioned single, the instrument is there for the whole of the way. It gives the wall of sound an extra layer for sure but also adds warmth to the whole. An element that is often overlooked in punk/garagerock. It sets The Slow Death apart from many of its colleagues.

To copy the bio, "The Slow Death is Jesse "Pretty Boy" Thorson's most prolific project which has a lineup that's always evolving, and this album's tough hard working crew with Jack Gribble on drums, Luke Lechler on organ+guitars, and the bonus of Alex Bammel sprinkling some incredibly clever guitar leads on in the studio is hard to beat". Why try to up that? Thorson's voice is of the rough kind. Well worn in so to say. It gives the band a rough and  tough edge that convinces no little. The message is, The Slow Death is not kidding around, that much is clear.

A slow death is something torturers relish. The artwork, if I recognise Hank Williams there, is another form of slow death, the excessive abuse of substances. The energy coming out of this album will awake anyone from stupor. It's like getting charged. The Slow Death starts at full speed and may play a slower song here and there, the energy is never gone. That wall of sound returns when and wherever it can, rock ballad or not.

What strikes me most, is the consistent quality of the album. Where with (U.S.) albums like this, e.g. by The Gaslight Anthem to name one, I start getting somewhat bored after the third to fifth song, No Light To See keeps me on my toes for the whole ride. To be honest that surprised me, as I had expected that it would not, based on the first songs. But take the recent single 'Little Ghost', song 8 on the tracklist. It has great accents and a chorus that you would like to shout along to at any live show of the band. The "solo"/outro is fantastic in all its elementary playing.

No Light To See is a great punk/garage rock album. The Slow Death is a new name to me but one that will stick for a while. On its Bandcamp page a 'jaxtaxman' writes that this is the band's best album to date. I believe him immediately.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order No Light To See here:

https://jessethorson.bandcamp.com/album/no-light-to-see