Guitars. They swoop, they slide, they rumble and they roar all the way through the fabric of ‘The Birds Fly Low’, the third album from Creature With the Atom Brain, and finally gets its UK release after being available in some territories since April.
Hailing from Belgium, the band don’t echo the metal sounds normally associated with rock from the continent. This is a more considered affair where the multiple layers of guitars are used intelligently to create walls and waves – effect pedals at times feel as though they’re being hit more often than the bass drum.
The band is a side project from Millionaire, driven by keyboardist Aldo Struyf, who plays some keyboard, but mainly guitar on this record.
Opener ‘Hit the Sky’ kicks off with heavy bluesy riff before a second guitar shimmers in and fills the room. It’s dark and brooding, setting a tone that continues throughout.
‘Black Rider Run’ features Mark Lanegan on vocals – and it’s a wise collaboration (in fact most of the band actually also moonlight as The Mark Lanegan Band). Lanegan’s brooding vocals complement the psychedelic fuzz drawn from the guitars. ‘You’ve been bit by a spider brother, can’t wash the blood away,’ sings Lanagen in his trademark drawl.
There are elements of Queens of the Stone Age here too though – and the American alternate rock scene is well represented. That said, it’s a tricky album to place. The guitars never sound anything less than amazing, yet at times begin to feel pedestrian and there’s a yearning for the band to break their mould. When they do, on the afore-mentioned ‘Black Rider Run’ and ‘Break Me Blue’, it gets more interesting, but then goes too far on ‘R-Frequency’, where guitar, vocals and keyboards are distorted to the point of B-movie freakiness.
Title track gets back onto familiar territory and closes the record on a high. The album never lets up throughout its running length, and perhaps some more variation would have played well. Regardless, it goes beyond side project and the Creature with the Atom Brain are settling well into life in this guise.
Available now via their website.
Posted by Kev Scott.
