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Filter

Crazy Eyes

Written by: PP on 12/06/2016 00:05:48

Just as for every one of Filter's previous three albums prior to the seventh album "Crazy Eyes", the entire lineup of the band has been shuffled save for mastermind Richard Patrick, who continues to use Filter as his personal vehicle for exploring industrially-tuned alternative rock from every creative angle possible. This approach has resulted in albums that differ considerably from one another stylistically, but perhaps none as much as "Crazy Eyes" does from its predecessor "The Sun Comes Out Tonight" from three years ago.

Where the latter took Filter back towards the expansive soundscapes of "Anthems For The Damned", where alternative rock, post-grunge and nu-metal seamlessly merged together, "Crazy Eyes" is the heaviest Filter album in recent memory. It dives head first into industrial rock, drawing parallels to debut album "Short Bus" from 1995 but also to bands like Nine Inch Nails, Killing Joke, and Revolting Cocks. It's a radical shift from the more radio-friendly alternative rock tunes that the band have been toying with for most of their revitalized career since 2008, losing some of its accessibility and expansive soundscapes in favour of echoing industrial effects that paint a picture of being in a crazy industrial rave in a decommissioned factory hall. You get the picture. Plenty of programming, repetitive thumping rhythmic pulsations, and Marilyn Manson style whispered vocals (see: "Take Me To Heaven", for instance). And I'm not sure it's for the better.

There are a couple of catchy cuts in between, the latter being one example, and the Nine Inch Nails inspired "Nothing In My Hands" being another one, and the brooding "Kid Blue From The Short Bus, Drunken Bunk" being arguably the best track on the album. But for the majority of the album, the experimental industrial rock approach results in distorted songs that fail to highlight Filter's strength: Richard Patrick's voice. In a more compressed soundscape, his voice doesn't come into its own properly, and many of the extended shouts/screams that gave you back chills on their best material simply don't exist on this album. Same with the instrumentals. I'm usually all for heavier and more technical music, but in Filter's instance, the more polished alternative rock style just works so much better than the rougher industrial one. The guitars are heavily distorted and the atmosphere on the record becomes too gloomy and noise-driven to accentuate Filter's talent for perfectly balancing straightforward alternative rock with something a little more experimental and progressive.

That said, fans of the 1995 debut album "Short Bus" will probably find "Crazy Eyes" to their liking considering it's the first properly industrial rock/metal album Filter has written since then. The return to their roots may catch newer fans by surprise, and not necessarily in a positive manner.

Download: "Kid Blue From The Short Bus, Drunken Bunk"; Nothing In My Hands; Take Me To Heaven; Head Of Fire
For the fans of: Killing Joke, Revolting Cocks, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson
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Release date 08.04.2016
Wind-Up Records