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 Electric Eel Shock’s last record, Go Europe!, earned the band a spot on the map with rave reviews, well received, aggressive singles, and top tour spots. A year later, Electric Eel Shock is back with grammy nominated Judas Priest producer, Attie Bauw, to move in a more calculated, but just as hard hitting, sound in Beat Me. Obvious hits like “Rock n Roll Can Rescue The World” are missing from this album, but instead the disc is far more consistent in quality and far more interesting. The record opens up with a catchy beat and string scratches when Aki Morimoto calls in an onslaught of riffage with a hoarse “Scream for me, baby!”
The song fades out with noise but makes a quick transition to the undeniably groovy, completely danceable “Bastard!”. The jumpy groove bounces around a loose blues form with unpredictable pauses and smooth solos. “I Can Hear The Sex Noise” is perhaps the best cut so far. The clean, catchy guitars shift freely into the harder parts. The chorus is all about the words, spewing out in a mad rage of broken English. “Quiet!” Morimoto teases before phrasing the title of the track.
“Lemon Lees” is one of the many songs that exhibit the lighter, less metal-heavy side of Electric Eel Shock. A reminiscent-of-the-60s guitar lick uniformly repeats, gluing together the bars of rhythm behind it. The classic jam rock that ensues is brilliant. Free drumming, groovy bass, and choppy but crafted riffs reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age. The next song begins with soft, guitars with Morimoto swinging as sweetly as you might expect a crazy, Japanese metalhead to. Songs like “Killer Killer” and “I Like Fish But Fish Hate Me” are ideal examples of the band’s stylistic expansion and exploration.
Beat Me is filled with low, gravelling stoner-riffage intertwined with catchy hooks and pop tricks. The disc may upset fans of the nonstop onslaught of old singles like “Suicide Rock ‘n’ Roll,” but for anyone who’s willing to accept the band’s maturing, this is a disc worth checking out.
http://www.electriceelshock.com
Rating: 4/5
Album Review by Indy Shome
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