Los Angeles – Everything about Fuzz’s aesthetic screams “metal purists”: the band is made up of three long-haired heshers; the cover of their self-titled debut was emblazoned with a fantastical creature and kicked off with a song titled “Earthen Gate”; nearly all of their songs are built around thick walls of distorted guitar and bass riffs. However, everything about their history suggests they are anything but a traditional metal group: lead vocalist Ty Segall is best known for his blissful Nuggets-inspired garage pop; guitarist Charlie Moothart has spent time touring with guitar-driven indie-pop star (and The Ty Segall Band alum) Mikal Cronin; bassist Chad Ubovich fronts the latest garage band to make big waves in the underground, Meatbodies. Music fans that have followed these guys’ projects for years will be all over this release; the real question is if die-hard metal lifers will accept this alternative take on the music they love so much?
Despite the fact that the members of Fuzz have had their hands full juggling some of the most respected groups in the scene, they show no signs of letting up. In fact, just last month Segall and Moothart announced that they have formed another side-side-side-project in GØGGS. One would think that kind of prolificacy and glut of ever-creating minds would lead to an extreme lack of quality-control on II. While there are a few extraneous moments that could have been cut to make for a more lean release, for the most part this album is all killer, no filler. Nearly everything Segall touches is gold, from his own projects to those which he records in his at-home studio in Los Angeles (Ex-Cult, La Luz), and Fuzz’s II is no exception.
Sure there are some moments like the old-school hardcore of “Red Flag” that feel out of place and likely could have been left on the cutting room floor, and the late-album two-song run of “Jack the Maggot” and “New Flesh” fail to offer anything as exhilarating as the preceding tracks, but that essentially sums up the record’s negative aspects. That a “side project” is able to create an hour-plus worth of music and only bore the audience for about 10 minutes of it is a noble feat, even for the master song-craftsmen that make up Fuzz.
Opening salvo “Time Collapse Pt.II / The 7th Terror” makes listeners hold out till the one-minute mark for the first thirst-quenching riff, but there are few chances for a respite over the subsequent hour and five minutes. The following four-song run satiates wildly divergent tastes along the psych-metal spectrum. “Rat Race” offers nothing but pure grinding guitar-riff bliss while “Let It Live” sweetens the deal by mixing Segall’s trademark psych-pop hooks, never falling too far out of line with the sounds heard on Manipulator and Twins. Finally, “Pollinate” showcases Fuzz distilled down to its purest form, with classic-metal guitar riffing and Segall’s surprisingly sinister vocal work before naturally shifting into another one of his signature choruses.
The first four tracks of II are certainly the most memorable, but the next set of four are hardly less impressive; depending on your favorite strain of metal, it could be argued that “Say Hello” is the album’s pinnacle. If the LP had been halved to just the first seven tracks, it would be considered one of the greatest EPs of all time. Like a solid headliner that is outshined by an exhilarating opener, the second half of Fuzz’s second record is less interesting only because it can’t possibly live up to the pure catharsis of the first half. Similar to Motörhead in the 70’s and 80’s, Segall, Moothart, and Ubovich have managed to create an album with the dynamism to appeal to garage-punks and metal-heads alike.
Catch Fuzz’s killer live show throughout November as the band heads eastward across the southern United States, up the East Coast into Canada and then westerly through the Midwest. For tickets and exact dates, check out the band’s tour page.
Photo Credit: Denee Petracek
Matt Matasci
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