It’s HEAVY. Yep. That’s it, that’s the review. Insights like this are only available on the Heavy Blog.
Nah, I kid. Though, if I was truly as lazy as my freshman year Spanish teacher thought I was—after all, my nickname was Perezoso—I’d call it a day. But you’re here for something with a little more substance: something to color what you’ll hear on this record, with a bit of contextual flair and maybe even some entertainment. Let’s just say I’ve checked that box already…
What The Grasshopper Lies Heavy steamroll out with HEAVY is some good ol’ fashioned riff-forward, chunky-waves-smashin’-into-your-eardrums brand of AmRep-appropriate noise rock. It’s got a cynical disposition with a penchant for some headfucking and off-beat twists, but it’s not without a few good earwormin’ hooks along the way. In essence, for those familiar, it’s a logical followup to their wonderful 2021 release, A Cult That Worships A God Of Death.
Yet, what’s here feels a touch more aggressive and challenging. Demanding rhythms lend a sense of disorientation while also written in a way that encourages listeners to surrender to some righteous groove. For those coming at this from a more metal-leaning background—I fucking swear if Gojira ever decides to tone things down with a noise rock turn, they’ll be lifting some ideas from this. Tell me you can’t hear some of that punishing groove in “Cure 1997,” or in the one-two punch of instrumental closers “Labyrinth” and “Maze.” And even in their more straightforward moments, like in the driving opener “Human Claymore” or it’s chuggy and tongue-in-cheek Torche-like followup “Lyrics Are Hard” (this song is really just missing a couple bomb strings), there’s no shortage of brute force. Hell, the real only reprieve you’ll get with this record is a couple minutes in “Tallow Man,” a piece that harkens back to TGLH’s more introspective and atmospheric early work.
In yet another year packed with exceptional noise rock releases, where finding your flavor of choice is every bit as paralyzing as choosing a fucking ice cream flavor, HEAVY stands out. What TGLH offer here is not as unhinged as the likes of Intercourse, as dark and depraved as Crippling Alcoholism, as crass or punk as mclusky, or as nuanced as that new Chat Pile/Hayden Pedigo collab. Instead, they tick the boxes for those looking for a more physical, Part Chimp- or Nerver- type approach. And still, TGLH’s sludgy foundation and aggression gets them to places that I’m frankly not catching anywhere else, at times even veering into Mastodon-esque territory (“We Are All The Antichrist”), where there’s a level of instrumental sophistication you may not be expecting. It lends for some depth to its inevitable neck-wrecking replay.
So, yeah. It’s loud. It’s smart. It’s pissed. It’s HEAVY.
HEAVY drops this Friday, November 14. Pre-order wax and digital here.