Thee Oh Sees – Mutilator Defeated At Last
Another batch of blast furnace psych from the ever-fertile mind of John Dwyer and co. With the daydream haze of last year’s Drop putting an end to the band’s brief hiatus, here a muscular new line-up produces more dazzling finery, wrought from the same igneous rock as 2013’s Floating Coffin – Lupine Ossuary in particular shares the drive and purpose of that album’s squalling motorik freak-outs.
Still, Mutilator is very much its own beast. A forlorn organ solo pushes the stoned slop of Sticky Hulks towards more, uh, ‘pensive’ moods than the band has explored in previous incarnations; equally, the flowery acoustics of Holy Smoke are uncharacteristic but welcome, suggesting that even fourteen albums in, Dwyer still has cards yet to play. Despite all these welcome detours, however, the high points prove without question that Thee Oh Sees are still at their best following their tried’n’tested formula: burning a hole through your skull with frazzled garage scree.