RIFFS! So many beautiful fantastic RIFFS!
That’s the short version of this article now for the long version...
Stage four in Retro Futurist’s attempt to conquer hearts and minds of the metal community is another pinpoint strike in the form of instrumental three piece math rockers Lazer/Wulf hailing from Georgia, USA.
But unlike the straight up stoner/sludge acts on the roster that have proceeded them The Beast of Left and Right is a technical marvel of free form math rock that swallows up a diverse range of influences on its sonic journey to deliverance, taking stylistic cues from fellow power trios such as Earthless, Atomic Bitchwax and El Drugstore by pressing ‘start’ and never looking back to let their passion take its course in a cavalcade of off-kilter rhythms, jittery time signatures and huge RIFFS taken from all spectrums of the rock world ranging from progressive noodling to post-metal cascades to thrash metal thunder and everything in between.
Picking out individual tracks would be a disservice as this needs –nay deserves- to be listened to full every time to truly capture the full rollercoaster experience of this body of work, as the ridiculously tight musicianship ensures there is a sense of order to the perceived chaos that engulfs the listener.
The other reason to listen in full is that the album has been written as a palindrome that as the band state themselves "As far as the symmetrically, we wrote the album to be a palindrome – that is, it's the same backwards and forwards. The album is in two distinct halves, Left and Right, and we wrote them to be the "opposite" of each other”, which certainly adds an infectious circular flavor to proceedings.
However you decide to listen to it, the one thing guaranteed is that it’s amazing.... And packed with RIFFS!
