Creature With The Atom Brain | "Transylvania" now playing the bloody glove

Creature With The Atom Brain

"Transylvania"

The End Records

2009

The pedigree of Belgian group Creature with the Atom Brain is phenomenal. Creature With The Atom Brain members have toured and been part of some real heavyweight outfits such as QOTSA and the underrated Millionaire. The album's guest stars, such as Mark Lanegan and Tim Vanhamel, are notable catches. The varied influences on the band's MySpace page are spot on. But for all the talent, experience and attempts at musical variety here, Transylvania is just missing that certain ‘something’ that "...Golden Gate Bridge" encompassed and feels like rock-by-numbers, which can possibly be attributed to a recent jaunt touring with Dead Weather sucking their very souls dry whilst they slept. For the record, I am a HUGE fan of The Dead Weather.

That’s not to say this is a bad record as such. When it’s good and the band lock themselves into a tight, six-minute psychedelic riffathon then it is wholly decent and worthwhile stuff. Like when, two minutes into the upbeat title track, the bass goes all fuzzy. Or when the opener ‘I Rise the Moon’ saunters into its blissed-out chorus like a stoner exiting a bedsit at 8am on a sunny morn. Or for all of the understated but genre-melding six minutes of ‘Darker than a Dungeon’, one of the few tracks where they vary the pace and time signature throughout the song’s duration.

But is it enough to hark back to bands like Kyuss and Melvins, merely aping them and providing a modern day alternative when other rock bands have moved the genre on in the meantime?

Such is the dilemma with Creature with the Atom Brain. If all you want is a sophomoric record in a largely sophomoric branch of rock’s history, then ‘Transylvania’ will serve you well. For the rest of us, until they develop a sound of their own they’ll merely continue to be the bridesmaid, but never the bride…

-Drowned in Sound

Video for the title track, "Transylvania"

download Transylvania