Life… The Best Game In Town

Harvey Milk

Hydra Head

2008-07-07

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Back with a vengeance, rolling forth in thick, foaming waves comes chug after chug of the pure power sludge that is Harvey Milk and their latest offering Life… The Best Game In Town. Lulling the listener in with pretty chords and sweet chorals the opening of “Death Goes To The Winner” (i.e. of the Game of Life…) then bursts into everything that you’d ever want a new Harvey Milk album to do, and then some. It’s hard to work out whether that meaty, metallic instrumental chug beaten out by Creston Spiers, Stephen Tanner and (new boy to the Milk, old boy of the scene) Joe Preston is actually more meaty and metallic than Creston’s vocals — either way the point is the same. This first track shows off the skills of a perhaps more masterful and focused Harvey Milk than seen previously, as after its quiet/loud oppositions the songs chug is spun out building momentum for several powerful minutes, before ending with a referential (and suicidal) twist on The Beatles “A Day In The Life”.

Leaving out the subtle melodic counterpoint sections, second track “Decades” launches straight into huge riff and throat, with drummer Kyle Spence continuing to pound out the forceful and almost harshly stead-paced beats. Continuing on, the songs riff and swirling grungy lead has to be faded out to reach conclusion, which helps take the listener slowly down before hitting back with the rather more furious “After All I’ve Done For You, This Is How You Repay Me?”. An instrumental with faster, curling riffs, though which progresses halfway through into the deepest and murkiest of doom terrain.

either fast doom or slow hardcore

The band also keep the doom themes on “Skull Socks and Rope Shoes” but pick it up a notch into the more classic dark r’n’b fuelled Sabbath school as similarly interpreted by Saint Vitus/Iron Monkey/Eyehategod and classic comparison point (now doubled with the welcoming of Preston into the fold), The Melvins — also offering some big lead. Faster, drums and bass heavy rock appears courtesy of the group vocalled “We Destroy The Family” — a Fear cover which the band have played for years and whose pounding style is either fast doom or slow hardcore (you decide) and offers some almost arty lead over the crashing base sound.

You could think that you’ve got the hang of the metallic beast that Life… is after getting half the way through it but then you’re hit with “Motown”, a vague throwback to the band’s ROCK days — and with its dual melodic vocal and lead guitar harmonies (giving a similar feel to the Melvins covering Kiss) it feels ever so friendly.

With “Motown” down though its straight back to it with tracks like “A Maelstrom of Bad Decisions”, where pummelling chunks of bass and tom-battery drumwork lay down underneath the deep vocals which conjure beautiful screwed-up face images. The repeating bass riffs behind the crashing cymbals are described in Stephen Tanner’s liner notes as sounding kinda like Shellac — which is not too far from the truth.

though you know its only a matter of time before the calm becomes the storm and LOUD

In case you’ve forgotten what it sounds like “Roses” offers the cerebral quiet side the group fall back to every now and then so well, though you know its only a matter of time before the calm becomes the storm and LOUD it crashes in, building to twin lead harmonies and pounding along at that joyously near-painfully slow speed for which the group is known.

One more riff rocker appears (“Barn Burner” — sung by Andrew Prater) and then to the sprawling “Good Bye Blues”, the latter of the record’s bookends — both the opener and this encapsulating the full power of a group who due to their skill, and just because when they go into sludge they get so dirty it lingers, can make you near forget the command of range which they offer (varying the degrees of tempo and texture and countering their noise with subtle electronic passages or sweet instrumentation and light vocal sections, for example).

2006’s Special Wishes whet the appetite but Life… The Best Game In Town signals the return of Harvey Milk as almighty force, delivering a record right up there with their, and the, best.