Antlered Man - Giftes 1 & 2

Every band has their USP, and for Antlered Man it seems that nearly as many words are expended on their politics as their music, but seconds into opener ‘Outrages 1 Ta 3’ it’s clear that the music can look after itself.

‘Can’t Beat Them, Try Solvents’ kicks off the rage proper with some fittingly Rage Against the Machine noise, like a lo-fi take on The Battle of Los Angeles, but it’s the Queens of the Stone Age indebted ‘Better the Calamity You Know’ that really stands out of the first half of the record. They’ve gained some comparisons to System of a Down, and when the band move from shouting to attempting atmospherics in the latter portion of the track, it’s easy to detect subtle hints of System’s Toxicity in the ambitious production.

This move to a more considered use of instrumentation spills over onto ‘Surrounded By White Men’, a spitting rant of …Trail Of Dead proportions, it’s striking enough that it nearly overpowers the rest of the record. Except it doesn’t; for this is Antlered Man, and they have other ideas. Cutting back in with the whistling, riffing racket of ‘Buddhist Soup’ they instead deliver the album’s highlight before striking out to forge an arrogant path through the rest of the record.

The only major strike against this album are the production values – though the impression is firmly of an aesthetic attachment to lo-fi, nevertheless the arrangements are sometimes difficult to penetrate, and the bass in particular washes out some passages. These are minor quibbles however, that ultimately detract little from a confident – and above all, shockingly loud – debut.