aaamusic | On 17, Apr 2011

Oh my. My oh my. London five piece Antlered Man are unique, it’s hard to not be when you list your primary influences as Radiohead and The Melvins yet have a flautist in the line up. And there’s no compromise on this humdinger of a record coming on like an unholy hybrid of “Hysteria” by Muse and early Queens Of The Stone Age, this rumbles along on an ominously huge bass line, crushing lesser mortals in its path with it’s discordant, stinging guitars and sinister vocal that brings to mind images of Lux Interior doing horrible, horrible things to Jello Biafra with  Josh Homme filming it. It’s that kind of a record, what can I say. Needless to say this will divide opinion, with good reason, it’s a difficult record to love. It’s extremely abrasive, sometimes recalling an even more wilfully perverse Pixies before scuttling back into it’s comfort zone of strange. So I may be missing the point here but I’m not going to jump up and down and start proclaiming this the greatest song ever written, however I’m not going to pretend I’m not interested in the progress of this strange, enticing beast of a band. Ones to watch.

Author: Will Howard