ALBUM REVIEW: CLUTCH- PSYCHIC WARFARE

Clutch- Psychic Warfare
FFO- Hard Rock, Blues Rock

Clutch has been going strong over the past 2 decades. Going from a Hardcore band to the Hard Rock/Blues Rock band that many people today will best know them for. With Clutch's 11th album, Psychic Warfare, The band is continuing down the path they led with their previous album, 2013's Earth Rocker, but adding a little more variation to the mix.

The album starts with a 25 second introduction, The Affidavit before kicking into the lead single, X-Ray Visions (the song is also where the album title get it's name from. The single has a good mix of Earth Rocker and a little bit of the psychedelic vibe of Pure Rock Fury. Firebirds starts with a killer fuzz guitar riff and has a pretty similar vibe to the song Earth Rocker with a bluesier chorus and solo section. A short but sweet song. A Quick Death In Texas, much like the name suggests, has a very southern vibe to it. A way to compare it is D.C. Sound Attack with a Texas twinge (It even has a similar cowbell drum beat in the middle!). Sucker For The Witch is a bit more upbeat. The lyrical content is reminiscent of songs like Cyborg Betty, very memorably vocal lines. Your Love Is Incarceration is layed in a funky, southern groove. If a song like Uptown Funk can take over the planet the way it did, so can Your Love Is Incarceration. Just as catchy and fun to listen to, but hopefully a lot less “I'm so sick of this song being played everywhere” vibe. Doom Saloon is an interlude song of a lone western style guitar riff that has a tremble of distorted guitar for highlights that all leads for the intro to Our Lady Of Electric Light. This ballad brings you all the way back to the old west in an outlaw way. Noble Savage picks the tempo back up in arguably the fastest song that Clutch ahs done in a very long time. The song reeks (in a good way of bluesy rock stylings mixed with 70s style Hard Rock. Behold The Colossus has a more upbeat but similar feel to The Face from Earth Rocker. Decapitation Blues, despite the deception of the song title, is actually quite mid tempo, nice, and heavy. A great rockin' song. The final song, Son Of Virginia is the longest track on the album at 7:15. The song has a vibe similar to Gone Cold if the song had a full drumset. A little before half way through the song, the song picks up in power and keeps up the same momentum throughout the rest of the song before it fades out. The last minute of the song is a bootleg sounding piano riff with some spoken words to end out the song wishing you a good night.

If Earth Rocker was an album for the North, Psychic Warfare is an album for the South. Both albums have a similar vibe to them, but Psychic Warfare is much more in the Blues and Southern Rock variety. Is it the most original album in their career? Far from it,! But that doesn't make it any less solid. If you wanted Earth Rocker to have more of variation in tempo and keep up the blues side of their sound, Psychic Warfare is the perfect album to check out! It proves the point once again that you just need to be solied at what you do to make a great album, and that's exactly what Clutch has delivered with Psychic Warfare.


- 8/10

Clutch- Psychic Warfare available NOW via Weathermaker Records