Album Review: Tomahawk -Oddfellows

Tomahawk

Oddfellows

***and1/2 out of *****

This thirteen track disk from the famous collection of players is the fourth release from Tomahawk but the first to feature new bassist Trevor Dunn after the departure of Kevin Rutmanis.   Recorded in Nashville with core members and fellow rockers Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle), Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard) and John Stanier (Helmet) the foursome seems to have gelled quickly on Oddfellows.

Perhaps hearing this title and knowing the artists involved your thinking that this disk will be some out there freaky music. That is really not the case as all of these players have released more experimental work in the past; this is a rock band.  The title track is a straight ahead (if extremely dark/heavy sounding) alt-metal tune punctuated by Patton's glorious vocal chorus while the first single "Stone Letter" plays as a radio friendly hard rock workout. Even an on-the-edge driving punk tune like "South Paw"dips mellow with the verse and lyrics before getting freaky with the lyrics.

The band isn't as easy to classify on all of the tracks here, it wouldn't be an album from these artists if they were.  "White Hats/Black Hats" is spastic,"A Thousand Eyes" features great bass lines from new member Dunn and "Waratorium" contains some aggressive/dirty funkiness that borders on industrial. 

The most successful of their more experimental efforts is "Rise Up Dirty Waters" with its jazz like intro, space vocals, tempo changes and overall eerie tone; tracks like this make Tomahawk a band always worth checking out. Oddfellows overall could do with some more odd touches to the finished product, however this album is certainly accessible enough for new fans to enter their world, come on in.
________________________________________________________________________
This is a weird disk on one hand I thought this would be pretty crazy stuff, it isn't very experimental. On the other hand, everything presented here works well.  Gave it 3 and 1/2 stars, which I think fits our rating system, but almost dipped it to 3, check it out for yourself.

Support the group here, Buy the album Here, and peep some samples below:
"Oddfellows" (cool as hell video)

"Rise Up Dirty Waters"