Monday 11 July 2016

Teacher - S/T (Album Review)


Release date: June 17th 2016. Label: Devils Child Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Teacher – S/T – Tracklisting

1. Stuck 2 My Dreamz
2. Smile, You're In Hell
3. Heavy Metal Parking Lot 1979
4. Triangle Of Iron
5. Mean As Hell
6. Peripatetic Blues
7. Wildcard Jambalaya
8. Don't Die On Me Now
9. Panopticon
10. Home For The Summer

Band Members:

Solomon Arye Rosenschein - guitars, vocals
Jonathan Ethan Mercer - drums, guitars, vocals

Review:

Seattle's Teacher comes on as a much needed breath of fresh air. Taking 70's heavy rock, psychedelica and razor sharp riffs, they play with a gleam in their eyes, and subsequently created an outstanding album in the process. This combination alone puts them ahead of a huge number of bands. If you then add their technical prowess and song-writing skills with a carefree attitude, you simply can't go wrong. And Teacher aren't doing anything wrong at all.

'Stuck 2 My Dreamz' is an amalgamation of tripped out rifforama stoner fronted by Chris Goss. A short fantastic opener, to say the least. On point and sinister, 'Smile, You're In Hell' has a garage feel to it while grooving sweetly. Don't know if it's a spoof on the legendary underground movie with almost the same name, regardless 'Heavy Metal Parking Lot 1979' rocks and rolls so well. That riff, man! 'Triangle Of Iron' weaves in and out between soft seductive tones only to switch to badassery with the flick of a switch. Towards the end of the song, Teacher lets their hair down and goes full tilt. Metal, stoner and punk meets in 'Mean As Hell'. This it sounds like the bastard child of Chris Goss and Sean Garrison(Kinghorse) belts out the lyrics. And yes, you better get out of their way.

Low down and dirty, 'Peripatetic Blues' snakes and slithers around you until it strikes like a gigantic mean rattlesnake. Trippy and out there instrumental 'Wildcard Jambalaya' leads into the groovy and Zeppelinesque 'Don't Die On Me Now'. There’s so much swagger, rattle and roll to last a lifetime. Psychedelic and frantic at the same time, ‘Panopticon’ is a delicious headfuck in the grand mal size. Starting off in almost indie style, closer ‘Home For The Summer’ hangs on to that vibe but add some schizo stuff unleashing a weird yet captivating beast.

Teacher’s debut album is a wonderful release of the kind that grabs you from the word go and never releases it’s grip on you. And I love that! In a time when it is very hard for bands to stand out, these guys comes along and simply turns everything on the head which just such ease, it leaves me thinking “where the hell have this band been until now?”. More of this please…and thank you Teacher for recording this amazing wax.

Words by Håkan Nyman

Links: