early man - closing in
Friday, January 13th, 2006
By all counts, Early Man are an atavistic band ahead of their time. Hell, they make no claim that the primitive should be avoided: from their sexist moniker to the embryonic and skeletal album art, every indication is there that the band is looking retrograde. And an exploration of the album only confirms such a suspicion, with the first tracks assailing ears with riffs worthy of Iron Maiden and Sabbath. The new thing about this recovery of 70s and 80s awesomeness? It’s not at all ironic. The clincher? Only two guys are thrashing around and creating this veritable cavern of Stone Age sound.
The names of the tracks are as ominous as the motif of the album, with “Feeding Frenzy” no less intimidating than “Death is the Answer” and “Raped and Pillaged”. And the rock is loud, shunning the recent trend of fragmented sub-genres like ‘grindcore’, ‘doom’ and ‘metalcore’ or even ‘hardestcore’.
So grow out your hair a few more inches, break out your old dirty black shirt and bang your head around. Like you did earlier.