Comets On Fire Reviewed
Comets On Fire
Avatar
(Sub Pop)
A barrage of dope-greased guitar licks isn’t usually enough for Santa Cruz’s dirt merchants. But things are a little controlled this time.
Avatar plays the classic rock card so often it becomes a struggle to figure where Comets On Fire begin. The hazy, piano-driven “Lucifer’s Memory” fights classic conventions without luck until a piercing shriek punctuates the cloud. Surf touches and theremin distract from the proto-psych chanting of “The Swallow’s Eye” until a hypnotic blues riff and Bonham-esque pounding eat up a five-minute segue. “Holy Teeth” breaks off the crust in a Mudhoney-born slab of Northwest punk energy sorely lacking from the meandering remainder of Avatar. The drubbing repetition of “Sour Smoke” deadens the riff before filtered, haunting voices can fade in and out, a lethargic rumble of indistinct tributes and stoned wandering. By the time “Hatched Upon The Age” sets in, the satirists have fully become the very avatars of self-parody.
— Steve Forstneger
Appearing: September 3rd at Empty Bottle in Chicago.
Click here to download “Dogwood Rust.”
