Search - Thought Industry :: Songs for Insects

If only Metallica had been weird

Brian Block | Greensboro, North Carolina | 03/16/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"My initial reaction to hearing SONGS was that this debut might be the greatest heavy metal album I'd ever heard; that it was the record Metallica might've made had they looked at their masterpiece/ monstrosity AND JUSTICE FOR ALL and said "what we need to do is supplement our ambition with creativity", instead of "what the world needs now is some louder Foghat records". T.I. shared Metallica's forcefully chugging bass sounds, fondness for riding the cymbals, willingness to switch time signatures and to extend a song for seven minutes, and anti-authority/ pro-neurosis lyrics. In that context, what was different about T.I.'s vision--- the inventive percussion textures occasionally mixed to the front as hooks, or the fact that Brent Oberlin often sung serious original poetry in a clear voice, or the occasional piano and weird synth--- seemed to me like inspired Jackson-Pollocky remixes of an exciting but increasingly monochrome style.Since then, I've made my peace with METALLICA and LOAD after all; sell-outs they may be, but it's hard for me to hold onto an intellectual objection against music that makes me jump around happily. In the meantime, probably influenced by seeing which influences Thought Industry chose to lay off, it's exactly the Metallica-like aspects of SONGS that have come to bore me. Oh, I enjoy the extremely staccato march of "The Flesh Is Weak" (which, going by music instead of words, one would take as a contemptuous victory slogan from the killer robots), which manages to actually exaggerate Metallica's style. And "Third Eye" is oddly mixed in a way that inspiredly redistributes the musical roles among normally cliched sounds. But otherwise T.I.'s lumbering thuds keep overwhelming their actual strengths.On the other hand, the thrilling "Daughter Mobius", flourishing multisegmented prog-rock roots, invents thrash klezmer, with a hook not all that far removed from "Hava Nagila" and the occasional peasant shouts "(clap) Hey! (clap) Hey!". "Alexander Vs The Puzzle" is functionally equivalent to the classical guitar on "Battery" or "One" but instead uses folk motifs, and maintains them throughout a genuinely attractive song. "Ballerina" could be Metallica covering the Dead Kennedys at maximum rave-up. "The Chalice Vermillion" shows guitar-solo traces of Yngwie "thanks go to: Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Bach, and Vivaldi" Malmstein. "Blistered Text and Bleeding Pens" seems like a partial attempt to play midtempo metal rhythms on acoustic guitars with folky, even somewhat jazzy chordings. And "Bearing An Hourglass", which except for the closing piano is played entirely on regular rock instruments, nonetheless sounds like a cover of one of Mussorgsky's or Tschaikovsky's louder, more magesterial compositions.Their lyrics employ typical metal themes but with an ambitious flair. I'll take "Third Eye" as representative: "Children on a playground, one kid's bigger than the rest. The blind stand beside them. The weak wither and die. The big kid stands defiant, arrogant in his bliss. Thinks that knuckles and sinew can make him always right. I'll run from him. I'd rather hide than be dead". True heavy metal (as opposed to Kiss/ Motley Crue lite-metal), though defined by specific ways of making noise with guitar and bass, has developed a strong identity as peacefully aggressive expression for the outcasts and the overwhelmed. Real metal also, when not celebrating random dismemberment, often goes for social conscience--- "Third Eye" makes a metaphorical connection between school bullies and the American military, while "...Mobius" mocks "He calls the world 'Arena Grand'. Bone gameshow: a small joke Christ plays on the devil. Nielsen rates it well". "Ballerina" is vaguely a love song, and I suspect more couples could relate to "We are lonely. We are scared. We are forever!" than would ever so unwise as to admit such motives. "...Mobius", keeping that cynicism and ditching the love, thoughtfully advises "The men are always boring you. Take their cash before the sun, run their Visa to maximum. Instant dinner, the pinnacle of romance that burns you again". It's odd advice from a band whose songs, going beyond AABB form into sections G and H, do not indicate enough attention span to last a dinner, let alone a vicious aftermath. Then again, that's why they're hiding in their Kalamazoo studio, assaulting the ears of impassive multitracks, and we can listen to them at a safe distance."

Debut of the greatest Metal Band you noone ever heard

fletz | Somerset, NJ United States | 06/13/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard this when Thought Industry was getting a little airplay on 92.3 K-Rock in NYC. The album's opener, 3rd Eye, is deceptively straight forward and then, all of the sudden, the remaining 9 songs come at you from every direction in a relentless hail storm of odd time signatures, shouted lyrics and machine like sound. This CD will be hard to listen to at first, make no bones of that. But once you get through the first listen and begin to understand and enjoy it, you will crave it like you do Swiss Cheese. It smells funny, tastes pungent but there are times when nothing else will do. Then, you will crave their other CDs and be equally disturbed. They too will become like some of your oldest friends: irritating and difficult to understand but something forces you to pick them up and listen to what they have to say. Buy this CD now. You won't be disappointed. You may be dream of odd dark things afterwards, but you certainly will enjoy your purchase."

Difficult to find, but worth it you do

Jason D. Thompson | Ohio | 12/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a difficult album to describe, but I'll try anyway. If you take the instrumental sophistication of progressive rock, the confrontational political stance of punk, the agression of heavy metal, and the weirdness of alternative you may come up with some that doesn't sound too far from SFI. Highly recommended for those who like stuff Dream Theater, Watchtower, Spiral Architect, Cynic, and other intellectual and technical bands."