COMETS ON FIRE

Interesting debut album from this great band. Genre-wise it falls somewhere between stoner rock and punk, with blues thrown in. From the first few seconds of All I Need you can tell this is going to be a high-energy album. Even when the tempo fades in songs like Lets Take it All and Ghost of the Cosmos, the energy doesn't.

The screeching distorted guitar of Ethan Miller flares throughout the entire album and he does a fantastic job. Ben Flashman, as always, plays solid bass as does Utrillo Kushner on drums. However it is Noel von Harmonson and his echoplex that gives this band a unique edge. He creates powerful, noisy sonic walls that keeps the high energy flowing from start to finish.

Great as this album is, it lacks the progressive songwriting that the band will display later on. Don't let the 28 minute Days of Vapor fool you, those of you who love epic tracks. Its really just a few live recordings pasted together. There's good stuff in it, but its not really a song so much as a bunch of non-progressive songs grouped into one track. The most progressive song on the album by a wide margin is my favorite track, the bluesy Ghost of the Cosmos.

Progressive arguments aside, I only really have two problems with the album. One is that Utrillo Kushner is capable of much more on the drums. Don't get me wrong, he does a great job (especially capturing the garage punk energy on the album), but in later albums he really shows us why he's one of my favorite drummers. The other thing is that on a few tracks Ethan Miller uses the echoplex to distort his vocals, making it even harder to understand him. Its a cool effect, but I like his vocals too much for them to be so drastically distorted.

Recommended first to fans of the band, but also to those with an open mind about loud, energetic punk-like hard rock music.

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