Do to the beast

"Afghan Whigs' first album in 16 years carries on where the Ohio grunge-era rockers left off in 1998. Even minus founding guitarist Rick McCollum, the template remains that of a hard, heavy rock band playing soulful music with anguished vocals. If anything, there are even more nods to black music. Orchestral strings and Motown drum beats abound, while frontman Greg Dulli is not averse to an occasional falsetto or Prince-like wailing".

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"Kærligheden er i miskredit, og alting synes i opløsning, som på den medrivende og spooky Lost In The Woods, hvor Dulli kælent konstaterer: "Surprise, surprise I'll have you know/I've come to see you die". Matamoros kører det tunge skyts i stilling med en repeterende rytmisk svajen, mens I Am Fire og den fremragende Algiers med Dullis falset vokal fremmaner en forkærlighed for amerikanske soulnavne som Marvin Gaye og Sam Cooke. Do The Beast er et respektindgydende comeback, hvor The Afghan Whigs efter næsten to årtiers pause stadig formår at fremkalde det indre bæst".

"On Do to the Beast, Dulli seems less interested in rehashing the raw rock-quartet attack the Afghan Whigs mastered in the 90s than he is in building on it. The pummeling math-rock riff of "Matamoros" and the impossible breakneck pace of "The Lottery" recall the band in spirit if not precisely in sound, and opener "Parked Outside" may be the heaviest thing he's ever committed to tape. These songs are orchestrated grandly to draw out the dark drama of Dulli's lyrics, which continue to plumb the deteriorating effects of drugs, crime, and love, but overall there's less groove than you might expect from an Afghan Whigs album".

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"Hvad indholdet angår, er det skabt af Greg Dulli og John Curley, og altså uden resten af det tidligere lineup. Den stærke guitarist Rick McCollum savnes i lydbillederne, hvor der kompenseres med keyboards, fyldig percussion og stedvise strygere. Det fungerer. Numrene er solide, indimellem muskuløse og med en efterklang af 1990ernes rockbølge, og er man til tung, riff-baseret rock, er »Parked Outside« og »Royal Cream« sågu bedre bud end dem, Queens Of The Stone Age har uforståeligt stor succes med".

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