ZapTown

[Article by Stephen Cruze.]

You’re Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn Into Demons
Contact High Wit Da Demons
Function Records
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

A pregnant pause before the first chord is struck.  Feedback and the distortion from slightly vibrating strings and big muffs are stomped and standby is switched off. The opening song, “2009″ sounds a lot like 1989.  I’m wondering if Mudhoney didn’t secretly record this record for these guys. Is You’re Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn Into Demons heralding the return of grunge?  There’s no other way to describe it.  A new platoon of bands is cropping up and their influences are not so much Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth and Stooges as Sabbath, Deep Purple, Zeppelin and Motorhead. It’s been spotty, but over the past few years underground, indie headbangers have had a few bands to do bong hits with beneath their black lights.  Dead Meadow and High On Fire come to mind.

You’re Smiling Now… is of that ilk. Celebrate the return of Marshal and Hi-Watt stacks.  Dust off the Superfuzz and Big Muffs and expect your ears to ring and your teeth to vibrate in your head.  I’m usually one who focuses heavily on lyrics and most of the time lyrics and vocal style ultimately make or break an album for me.  With You’re Smiling Now… my gut makes an exception to this rule.  I’m not saying that the lyrics to Contact High Wit Da Demons are bad.  They may be fantastic, something that will only become clear after repeated listens.

The vocal delivery is great though.  It plays perfectly to the strong arm that the instrumentation provides.  Slightly laconic and maybe at times even bored.  If not bored then, off-the-cuff, but when you have power chord progressions as heavy and mind-altering as these, the vocals here provide a good balance.

The entire album is only 36 minutes long.  Eight songs in 36 minutes.  That’s probably because the four minute Yngwie Malmsteen guitar solos are thankfully absent.  Instead, what we have here (and I mean it in the best possible sense) is what Mark E. Smith referred to as “repetition, repetition, repetition.”

Your Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn To Demons: http://www.myspace.com/thedemons
Function Records: http://www.functionrecords.com/