A Product of the Environment

Despite releasing a few extended plays at the turn of the new year, New Jersey-based Super Snake have been rather dormant of late. Their most recent release, Leap of Love, is a speedy twelve-track that clocks in at just over an hour. Alongside Dillinger Escape Plan’s Kevin Antreassian, Super Snake taped their newest album within the confines of some backwoods Virginia log cabin. Even with the intentionally bucolic environment, the album is tuned and crisp. It would appear that the band’s absence from the studio has allowed them to fine-tune their production setting, and, for that matter, create an ambiance that fits justly with their intense material.

Unhinged lyrics and an established section of lengthy rifts fluctuate nicely throughout the entirety of the band’s second release. Listen carefully as savage instrumentals weave sadistically across the walls of the cabin. With an even closer look, one will discover Jerry Jones’s twisted menace, as he speaks in haunted idioms. Yet amidst all the raucousness created by these lyrics, there is an interesting cadence between tracks, as the production creates moments of solace.

Similarly, the album presents itself as a catalyst of garage rock, and fans of Sabbath will be pleased by the band’s use of tumultuous energy. The grim grooves concocted in Leap of Love play a tune brazed with grunge rock and psychedelia. Amongst dark tones and hints of modern horror, Super Snake appear to have lit a new candle in their budding quest to crack deeper into the confines of garage rock.

Grounded in grunge and sprinkled with doom, Super Snake’s cabin-infused record could allow for the band to continue experimenting in future musical endeavors should they hold onto the momentum created by Leap of Love’s release. In today’s world — as in the world of many former rock bands — Leap of Love proves you don’t need a studio to make an album. Just a few instruments, someone with the production know-how and the right atmosphere will do just fine. But as more and more hopefuls grab hold of re-wired instruments and half-beaten sound systems, the prospect of someone with a more adherent commitment to production overtaking Jersey’s Super Snake is a possibility. Ideally, another lengthy hiatus is not part of the plan.