There are a lot of things that I like about New Haven trio Hellrazor and their second LP, Heaven's Gate. As a '90s guy, one of the easiest to talk about is their affinity for the alternative rock of that era. It's hard to listen to Hellrazor and not think of the stuff that Sub Pop was putting out during that period, given their ability to combine aggressive guitar playing and walls of sound with an unconstrained and unhurried pop finesse.
The flexing and contorted hooks and spinny, jumpy grooves of "Jello Stars," a rather awesome single off of Heaven's Gate, feel like they were inspired by the decoded DNA sequence of an angstier teenage version of myself, biological signatures translated into musical notation for the band's later interpretation. This is to say, that many of the songs off of Hellrazor's latest album feel like they have been with me for a lot longer than seems possible. It's an odd sensation, but not one that I don't welcome.
Heaven's Gate, and the alternative rock that generally emerged at the dawn of the '90s, are both the kind of art that are promptly identifiable- they are like looking into your own reflection in terms of quality and character. Back in the day, it was this accessible angst that caused a number of albums of the era to be labeled "instant classics" because of how well they settled into the prevailing mood of the moment (whether anyone was likely to remember a particular band or their release the following year or not was another matter altogether). Now Heaven's Gate has that same kind of feel, but I'm not going to curse Hellrazor with any such critical kiss of death. I will, however, point out that their music does "click" in a way that few bands since that moment in the late 20th century have. Hellrazor's sound has the kind of immediate, accessible character that connects to people's emotions and need for an adrenaline spike in their lives. Hellrazor taps into a stratum of rock music where chords aren't afraid to be big as hell and boss the listener around a bit, but don't sacrifice charisma or skill in their emphasis on impact. The grunge of groups like Nirvana and Soundgarden gave people who weren't ready to risk life and limb in the pit at hardcore punk shows the opportunity to identify with music that accurately personified the mood and state of distress that settled in at the advent of the "End of History." Thirty years later, we're still waiting for history to kickstart again, and the monumental ennui of these acts, as reflected through Hellrazor's music, is as pressing and urgent feeling as ever.
"Big Buzz" has a whiplash charm to its elastic power-pop fray that sounds like the Posies riding the high of an intravenous drip of Rob Dickinson's spinal fluid. "Phantasm" is another glorious grunge-gilded number, that is slower in tempo, but with just as much muscle and hot-blooded warmth below the cool detachment of its exterior. And as a treat for all you shoegazers in the crowd, Hellrazor has pruned and nurtured "Landscaper," a distortion submerged, teargas-treated freakout which sounds like it is pitting the Melvins against Alison's Halo in a burning punk house, as they claw and scramble up a flight of cellar stairs to the safety of the chilly night air above.
Then there are the songs that I wouldn't only expect a band with big-label money to be able to pull off. Songs like the backwater, Primus funk flattering hootenanny and fever dream "Demon Hellride," a wild detour that sounds like it is being sung by Black Francis after chasing a fistful of quaaludes and LSD tabs with a Corpse Reviver cocktail. And then there is the final track, "All the Candy in the World," which is similarly outrageous as "Demon Hellride," but of a completely different character; sounding like a remixed Lush b-side contrived by Aphex Twin and commissioned to suss out the nagging similarities between Miki Berenyi's and Webby from Duck Tale's speech patterns.
In case you thought a record as elaborate and smartly crafted as Heaven's Gate is entirely a fluke, it's worth noting that Hellrazor has been gestating in the mind of singer/guitarist Michael Falcone's (most notably of Speedy Ortiz and Ovlov) since at least 2006, and that he's joined in the project by Kate Meizner of Jobber and Michael Henss of Heele. Also, as mentioned above, this is their second album- they've rode this bull before. It would also be easy to tag the project as simply the culmination of everything they couldn't make fly with their other bands, but that's not the way Heaven's Gate feels while you're in it at all. It's a fully calibrated and tautly constructed rollercoaster, one that ebbs in and out of the annals of rock history, absorbing everything that it touches and leaving a constellation of shining gold tethers in its deliberate, exploratory drift. A dispatch from a world where punk never broke, but where the damn feels like it could burst at any minute.
