Search - Boiled in Lead :: Antler Dance

Mixed Bag from BiL

Lenora Heikkinen | Winnipeg, Canada | 10/24/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Boiled in lead has always experimented with several different things in one album, but other albums, such as Orb, seem to work together anyhow; the diverse elements create an interesting synergy that keeps you going even when the tunes change mood and style.Antler Dance feels more like a collection of random tunes thrown together. Some are excellent, some are good - but the album as a whole does not hang together.That said, I'd better repeat, there is some EXCELLENT stuff in this album. My two favourite tracks, worth the price of the whole album, are the back-to-back instrumentals, "Sugarfoot Congress", and "Drowning". The first is a rocked up trad. set, that only gets wilder and harder - and better - as it goes. The second is a fiddle-dulcimer tune that I can only say is one of the most beautiful pieces BiL has ever done. Those two instrumentals also work in sequence, unlike many other moments on the album.Also notable are the trance-like "Neda Voda" (Though it's badly placed enough that the placement affects the tune to its detriment), a crazed cover of Bomey M's "Rasputin", and the poetic hard rock "Walk through the Door".Disappointments are "Robin's Complaint", which is lyrically sarcastic but sadly, musically whining, "Hook 'em Cow", which wears out after the first few listenings (Though it works fairly well live), and the overlong "Nasrudin" - which is made worse by following "Neda Voda", as the two combined create a stretch of around fifteen minutes of directionless instumental. Since "Robin's Complaint", "Bring it Round", and "Hook 'em Cow" make for an excessively long stretch of short sarcastic pieces, I wonder that they did not shake up the order of the songs a bit more; it would have improved things. Of course, simply replacing the (few) pieces that are not up to their usual standards would have improved the whole album more."

A POWER-FOLK-ROCK MASTERPIECE

Lenora Heikkinen | 04/11/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"VERY POWERFUL LYRICS,INTENSE INSTRUMENTAL IMAGERY.BOILED IN LEAD ROCKS YOUR CEREBRAL CORTEX,A MUST FOR FANS WHO LIKE TO THINK AND ROCK SIMULTANEOUSLY.THESE GUYS HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY AND YOU SHOULD LISTEN! I DID AND IT SOUNDS GREAT.ALSO LISTEN TO "HOOK'EM COW" IT'S HILARIOUS."

Mix of brute force, virtuosity and skewed humor

Lenora Heikkinen | 10/31/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I liked the record. Heard it on the radio{Newry Highwayman} and bought the cd. I was amazed at the wonderful polyrythmic perversity of the music. Try it you'll like it."