More Than Just a Supergroup
Sometimes a collection of musicians come together and you just know they were meant to be. Mutoid Man is made up of Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky, Converge and All Pigs Must Die drummer Ben Koller and Nick Cageao, who is the sound engineer at New York venue Saint Vitus, and they are one of the most exciting and impressive bands to come on the scene in a long time. Their second record in so many years, Bleeder, is a master class in how to blend the members’ hardcore, metal and post-rock backgrounds into one seriously groovy tour de force. Bleeder is the perfect follow up to last year’s Helium Head, matching its energy and power while also demonstrating how much they’ve grown as a band in such a short time.
The minute the drums come in a few seconds into album opener “Bridgeburner,” heads will be banging, feet will be tapping and you’ll know this album is going to take you for a ride. Mutoid Man is able to go from dizzingly fast, as seen in songs like “Beast,” to moments like the end of “Deadlock,” where we see them break out some slower, truly heavy riffs. But even with a moment of slowness, there is no resting in this album, from the very start to the final song. The title track highlights some of Mutoid’s post-rock abilities, giving an almost atmospheric vibe until those fast, mathy guitars come back in again and then shifts seamlessly into a perfectly dramatic and doomy close to the record that will inevitably leave listeners out of breath and wanting more.
There are no bad songs on this album; there aren’t even any bad moments. Mutoid Man is proving to exceed expectations, showing themselves to be even larger than the sum of their parts, and will undoubtedly be a major influence in heavy music to come. Bleeder is a powerful contender for one of 2015’s best records, and hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for another album, because it is bound to blow us all away.
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