General Lee: Raiders of the Evil Eye

The other day, I tried to explain to a friend just what we mean by the labels post-punk and post-hardcore. I didn't do a very good job; instead, I just played some Pelican for him and let it go at that. I should have played this album for him. To me, General Lee plays to the strengths (and some of the weaknesses) of whatever-it-is-we-mean by those labels. To me, the essence of the sound has something to do with the guitars, particularly the tone, the timbre, the chord progressions, the overall mood they create. In this respect, General Lee has the advantage--they have three guitar players, all of whom work hard to construct a musically interesting sound. The other musicians, a bass player and a drummer, are no slouches, but the guitars stand out to me the very most here. The vocals are generally good, but I confess that I preferred this band when the vocals were either not there or were slightly in the background. This band does such a good job of weaving together musical tapestries that I didn't want to be distracted by the harsh screech of the vocal track. Leave the drama and the anger behind and embrace the sheer joy of good music.

The best track on this album, in my opinion, is LVCRFT, an obvious reference to the great horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. I'm not sure exactly why the band left the vowels out of his name, but I'm going to speculate that it has some kind of reference to the way the Hebrew Bible didn't include the vowels in when it recorded the name of God. Perhaps the band is linking the sacred to the monstrous, the world-creation of a horror writer to the creation stories of scripture. Perhaps, too, the title is suggesting something about Lovecraft's status in the modern world; in recent years, he's become very popular, celebrated for his mysterious creations, a weaver of worlds and myths that have a modestly epic quality. I'm only guessing at possible meanings here; what I do know, however, is that Lovecraft's popularity within metal bands is at an all-time high, a topic I hope to explore in a paper in the coming weeks. In the meantime, enjoy this new release from the exciting and talented General Lee. I'm just going to admit it: I loved this album.

Track Listing:
1. The Witching Hour
2. Medusa Howls with Wolves
3. Alone with Everybody
4. Overwhelming Truth
5. The End of Bravery
6. LVCRFT
7. Running with Sharp Scissors

Added: December 7th 2012
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 2410
Language: english

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