exiledrecords

Reviews:

It's tempting to call Mit Gas "a magnificent shining beacon of pure rock,"or something along those lines. Nothing could be further from the truth, though,and that's a good thing. Sure, Mike Patton, Duane Denison, Kevin Rutmanis, andJohn Stanier have focused their collective powers to the point where rockwise,they make Faith No More (or pretty much any of the participants' previous projects)seem like a basket of kittens on Paxil. And they do play it fairly straighton a few tracks, notably, "Rape This Day," and "Mayday."

But Tomahawk seem loads more engaging when they adulterate the proceedings,as on the harrowing "When the Stars Start to Fall," the suavely sinister"Harelip," or album opener "Birdsong," a true metametalmasterwork. The track begins like Percodan-laced molasses, with Rutmanis' sampledbass groaning under the weight of Dennison's twenty-foot anaconda theme, onlyto morph into the kind of post-biker anthem that could potentially leave thedudes from Steppenwolf turning over in their graves like rotisserie chickens—evenif they're not dead yet. Realistically, it's hard to imagine how the combinationof Denison's songcraft and Patton's rich arrangements could be any more complementary.And Patton's "man of a thousand voices" drama queen complex has neverhad a better context; every time he shifts from fey to feral or debonaire todiabolical, you can't help but feel a little Kundalini shiver. If Mit Gas isany indication, Tomahawk just might end up being the first supergroup to trulyearn the "super."