Christian Wright’s bass, languid and flowing, puts us out to the seas of See (see what I did there?), a healthy bit of AIC grunge in the mood TEMPTRESS is in search of as Kelsey Wilson’s guitars wash atop the surface, breaking the foam. I can’t help but feel like I’m still waiting on the song to start at the halfway mark, though. The harmonized vocals of Wilson/Wright are holding interest, and Andi Cuba’s rhythms are locked in ala Ringo Starr, providing a bedrock base for what’s going on around her. I’m just not sure what is going on, is the problem. Is ‘Death Comes Around’ a mood piece, an extended intro to let us know the sort of thing we’re in for? Again, it’s holding my attention, so I’m going to take a page from the book of First Quitcherbitchn’ and let it ride.
‘Into My Soul’ practically bleeds ACID KING, but a bit more rough around the edges than Lori S. & co. are going for these days, elements of early KYUSS before some members got all full of themselves, workmanlike – blue collar, but in that best of ways. An interesting guitar pattern shows up at 4:00-4:32, and I’m fully onboard ship with the trio with this song, proving not only able but willing to let ‘Into My Soul’ shift and swirl naturally around them, an almost improvisational feeling to the comfort born of speaking the same musical language.
Forlorn and crestfallen, ‘Cry’ sloughs in great travail, each step a drudgery, each word wrung from loss and leaving, until suddenly the tune grows teeth around the latter 1/3rd movement, an angrier, more spiteful resolve on display. A darkly shimmering guitar passage begins ‘Serpentine’, reflecting flecks of light on it scales, but does carry on a bit long before all is made right in utterly alluring vocal interplay again, the benefit of a threesome, each able to contribute giving a multifaceted aspect.
Is See a perfect album? Certainly not, and if you enter into every new listening experience expecting such, then you deserve your disappointment. Enjoy it. In the meantime, what I See (and hear) is a band beginning their journey on as solid a footing as one could ask for. I have a feeling I’ll be back to this one fairly often.
Review By: Lord Randall
TEMPTRESS
See
Metal Assault Records