Search - Electro Quarterstaff :: Gretzky

All hail, sheer instrumental heavy metal wizardry from Winni

Aquarius Records | San Francisco | 11/14/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Winnipeg, Manitoba has certainly spawned some notable music artists -- Bachman Turner Overdrive, the Weakerthans, Neil Young, and uh, Burton Cummings. Now firing up their own prairie block heater are Canadian metallers Electro Quarterstaff. Yes, let's repeat that... all hail, sheer instrumental heavy metal wizardry from Winnipeg, Canada: Electro Quarterstaff! That band name alone would pique our interest here at AQ. But actually we've been waiting for this release for AGES, as one of the EQ boys is an AQ fan and was cool enough to send us down some of their cd-r demos a while back, thinking we just might like his band's brand of mega-mathy, tech-metal madness.



And he was right!! So, now suitably signed to the Willowtip label, here's the thus (to us) long-awaited Electro Quarterstaff debut! And it's a doozy. These blasting, bombastic songs practically turn themselves inside out with all the insane drumming, dual guitar shredding, and chunky chops crammed into 'em. Hectic heaviness overload!! We're happily dizzy after just a couple tracks. And the Zakk Wylde fans here appreciate all the pinch harmonics one of the guitarists flings like picks...



No surprise their thanks list includes members of Gorguts, Voivod, and Breadwinner! Basically, if you'd like The F-cking Champs to sound even more like Carcass, on crack, this is for you. Or, it's like a haywire super computer programmed to defeat Zebulon Pike at their own game. Damn. Some cuts, like, "Charmony" slow down a bit for some classic, majestic rifferama, giving more reason to make Champs comparisons... Oh yeah and like the Champs they've got that half-ironic, smart-ss post rock song titling thing down, getting the biggest groan from us with "Something's Awry In The Hetfield Of Dreams" (an eleven-minute epic by the way). Thank God they're an instrumental band! They're a bit more straight-forward with other titles like "Neckwrecker" (so true!) and "Twisted Squid" (sounds like it, if anything does).



They've also got some really sweet artwork adorning this disc, not your usual metal stuff (though there's skulls) but way cool. Not sure what more to say to recommend this to the right folks, we just don't want any fans of the Champs, ZP, Girth, Loincloth, Hematovore, Suzukitron, etc. to miss this!"