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Clutch - Earth Rocker review



Reviewer:
9.0

174 users:
8.23
Band: Clutch
Album: Earth Rocker
Release date: March 2013


Disc I
01. Earth Rocker
02. Crucial Velocity
03. Mr. Freedom
04. Night Hag [Deluxe Edition bonus]
05. D.C. Sound Attack!
06. Unto The Breach
07. Gone Cold
08. The Face
09. Book, Saddle, And Go
10. Cyborg Bette
11. Oh, Isabella
12. Scavengers [Deluxe Edition bonus]
13. The Wolf Man Kindly Requests...

Disc II [Earth Rocker Live] [Deluxe Edition bonus]
01. Earth Rocker
02. Crucial Velocity
03. Mr. Freedom
04. D.C. Sound Attack!
05. Unto The Breach
06. Gone Cold
07. The Face
08. Book, Saddle, And Go
09. Cyborg Bette
10. Oh, Isabella
11. The Wolf Man Kindly Requests...

Disc III [DVD: Live In Denver] [Deluxe Edition bonus]
01. Earth Rocker
02. Crucial Velocity
03. Mr. Freedom
04. D.C. Sound Attack!
05. Unto The Breach
06. Gone Cold
07. The Face
08. Book, Saddle, And Go
09. Cyborg Bette
10. Oh, Isabella
11. The Wolf Man Kindly Requests...

As with all the finer things, there are highly specific do's and don'ts when it comes to pairing Clutch discs with booze. Toss on The Elephant Riders, say, and you won't want to reach for a fifth of rum--that would be exceedingly barbaric of you--save that for their self-titled. Rather, if you want to be a human being and complement the wobbly sloshing-ness of its tunes, you should grab some mugs of a strong American pale ale. The combination will, take my word, lead to quivering liver orgasms of only the highest, most cultivated orders.

Going with Beale Street? You've got to go with bourbon--a lot of bourbon, and bourbon on its own. Jam Room? Mini martini glasses of LSD should suffice. Strange Cousins? Three fingers of scotch with a couple splashes of water. And so on.

Earth Rocker, like their 2004 album Blast Tyrant, will mix with any of the above and it'll mix with a lot more. And not just booze--it'll complement a nice walk about or a workout or a drive, it could go with a sprightly, surreal bedroom romp with your loved one, or a hearty soul food meal, etc.

I'm fond of almost every Clutch album, but some of them are definitely more cohesive than others. And this is definitely, after non-stop spins since I got it, one of their more cohesive albums. It sports a blend of what it seemed they'd aimed for with Strange Cousins and of what they achieved with Pure Rock Fury, adding a fair bit of further road-refined songwriting to it all. You hear Clutch at or at least near their best on this.

Part of that's due to the return of Machine, the guy who did the mixing and whatnot for Blast Tyrant, but it's also due to the blues bug burrowing deeper and masking itself more adeptly than it had on their more recent albums. It's still there and shows itself off proudly on, say, "Gone Cold," but it works its magic more subtly on this. It'll be on any real rock and roll album for sure, but these guys really emphasized its presence on Beale Street, and that emphasis didn't entirely go away on Strange Cousins. Now it's more evenly spread among what makes Clutch so damn fun: namely, hard-hitting, chunky and groovy rock n fucking roll. Which, coupled with Neil's trademark, liberal applications of the surreal and references to the mythological, provides a perfect soundtrack to crank as you and your wolf man friends roar speedily past peacekeeping agents from several futures in your car... or for when you just feel like rocking out. This is Clutch breaking their formula down to pure, brass tacks rock fury.


Stand outs: "Cyborg Bette," "Crucial Velocity," "Book, Saddle, and Go," and "Unto The Breach."





Written on 29.03.2013 by Wormdrink's real name is George and he's an American.


Comments

Comments: 12   Visited by: 294 users
29.03.2013 - 21:46
Rating: 9
Boxcar Willy
yr a kook
I haven't listened to too much Cluth, but I've always liked them. After a few listens of this i went back through most of their discography, and it's almost all great. They're a very consistant band (in terms of quality)

Great review, great album.
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14:22 - Marcel Hubregtse
I do your mum

DESTROY DRUM TRIGGERS
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29.03.2013 - 22:57
Rating: 9
PocketMetal

This review is almost as good as the music , Clutch are an amazing band ... I don't know how I over-looked them all these years .
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29.03.2013 - 23:05
Rating: 9
BitterCOld
The Ancient One
Love this album so much. been spinning it nonstop on my vacation.
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get the fuck off my lawn.

Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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30.03.2013 - 13:13
Rating: 8
BloodTears
ANA-thema
This is really fun. It seems like an opportunity to discover Clutch for me. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy this album and keep smiling.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29

Like you could kiss my ass.


My Instagram
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30.03.2013 - 13:32
Rating: 9
R'Vannith
ghedengi
Agreed with your review, I didn't know Clutch at all so this was really surprising. Consistently cool from start to end and never boring, absolutely no filler to speak of. The Face is my favourite at the moment or maybe Crucial Velocity, vocals are great there.
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02.04.2013 - 21:27
Ivor
Staff
This is the first Clutch album (among the few I've heard) that genuinely grabs me. I know what Clutch is on stage and how awesome that is. This one is the first for me to hit the same feeling on the album. I'm totally enjoying the ride.

I.
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No friends for playing games
No foes who scorn my name
Computerized machines of steel and rust
/---/
No friends in my house on Mars
No foes in my house on Mars
I was born in my house on Mars
I will die in my house on Mars
-- Ayreon - My House on Mars
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05.04.2013 - 12:53
Rating: 8
wormdrink414

Written by R'Vannith on 30.03.2013 at 13:32

Agreed with your review, I didn't know Clutch at all so this was really surprising. Consistently cool from start to end and never boring, absolutely no filler to speak of. The Face is my favourite at the moment or maybe Crucial Velocity, vocals are great there.

Yeah, The Face is brilliant. Kinda regretting putting the stand outs bit in, they're pretty much all stand outs. regretting scoring the thing at all really, don't have an explanation for why I gave Psuedogod's latest a higher score. The album is fucking great.
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09.04.2013 - 21:02
Godless Visions

Great review. Great album. First verse of Crucial Velocity is the best lyrical verse in Clutch history - beating out I Have The Body of John Wilkes Booth was a formidable challenge.

We talk about the greatness of Earth Rocker and the unconventional career of Clutch starting at the 30 minute mark here: http://metalstorm.net/pub/article.php?article_id=1319
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Visions From the Darkside
The greatest extreme metal talk show of all time.
http://soundcloud.com/nocontrolradio
www.nocontrolradio.com
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15.04.2013 - 19:56
Rating: 10
Darken Rahl

Awesome! Can't stop listening to it.
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16.04.2013 - 04:05
mojo

This record is rocking my world, it's almost certainly their best yet. Now I want to see them play live.
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Yeah. No. Wait, what was the question?
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16.04.2013 - 07:21
Rating: 9
R'Vannith
ghedengi
Favourite track update: Oh, Isabella is my jam from this one lately. I love records that offer a new point of focus every time you listen! About your scoring, a nice green number is bound to get the album some attention, which I'd say it completely deserves. And that's what it's all about really, making others aware of how much you enjoy great albums like this one.
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15.05.2013 - 00:24
Rating: 9
DystopianWonder

All my respected friends approached me after Blast Tyrant and said I was crazy by not noticing them. I had resisted them up until then, and I was less than politely sat down, given a bourbon, and ordered to pay attention. The feeling I had listening to that CD the very first time was not only unexpected, but life changing (musically, anyway). I simply couldn't believe what I was hearing. Since then, I have grown to be a big fan- seeing them on every tour since- but was slightly disappointed with Strange Cousins, feeling perhaps they had spent too much time on the road and leaning too heavily on their increasingly obsessive blues influence. Needless to say, I didn't have many expectations for this CD when I heard it was being released- so much so, I ignored the streams of the songs that were coming out before its release. Hearing this for the first time reminded me of that first Blast Tyrant listen. It's not that I had the same feeling or anything, but it took me back to that day and what I knew to be true back then- they know how to do it. I was absolutely astounded that they still have this part of their identity intact, and hopefully I can catch them as they are out. Truly well done.
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