Lazer/Wulf - The Beast Of Left And Right (CD Review)

01.Choose Again (Right Path)
02.Lagarto
03.A Conflict Of Memory
04.Twelve Leaps Over The Triple Trap
05.Beast Reality
06.Concentric Eyes
07.Choose Again (Left Path)
08.Mutual End

Sean Peiffer (Bass)
Bryan Aiken (Guitar)
Brad Rice (Drums)

Formed in 2010, a band hard to define so i will let them do it...

"Lazer/Wulf is an instrumental metal trio, which sometimes includes vocals. No, let's start over. It's a funk group with thrash roots. Or a jazz trio with sludge issues. Whatever it is, it's not the easiest thing to describe, which makes it that much easier to love. Just ask the band's rabidly devoted following.

Formed in the diverse and devoted music scene of Athens, GA, where every possible genre not only exists but actively co-exists, Lazer/Wulf learned to disregard genre conventions for the sake of an compelling performance and honest songwriting. It's thrash, it's math-rock, it's fusion and crust punk and doom and funk in 7/8 – but the seams between them aren't just hidden; they're simply not there. The Wulves are an ongoing experiment in making stylistic conflict a non-conflicting listen, cooking diverse, often adverse, ingredients into an exhilarating whole.

Circumstantially, it's heavy as hell, and tends to unify audiences with how simply fun it all is, even as it toes the line between "challenging listen" and "utter alienation."
To put it another way; imagine a giant trampoline rigged to explode. It's fun for everybody, but likely to kill you at any moment."

Okay so now it gets weirder.....

"The Beast of Left and Right is written as a palindrome, that is, it is the same backwards and forwards with two distinct halves, Left and Right. For instance, the first song on the album, Choose Again, uses the exact same chords, riffs and drum tracks as the final song on the album, Mutual End but one is major and the other is minor. As the band explains it, “The idea is that either way you choose, Left or Right, the paths are the same.”

Ahh well this one didn't quite live up to expectations at all im sorry to say.
What i heard were 8 instrumental tracks (Though most have some form of vocal on them), the style was pretty mainstream on the whole.
This would be simply listed here in the UK as Progressive Rock, think of bands like King Crimson and Soft Machine, then if you add a modern heavy twist for a few of the other songs then you could be listening to Here & Now or Tacoma Bridge Disaster.

The concept of the same forward and backwards would have worked better if the track lenghts were the same, this kind of style was done way back in the early 70's with bands like Faust and Neu!

So in terms of a modern prog album then this one gets a thumbs up, but if you buy into the hype then its a thumbs down.

Rating 5/10
For fans of: King Crimson, Kylesa