With a more than slight line up change (the swapping of their current drummer for their old drummer and the addition of the inimitable Joe Preston on bass), Athens’ finest are back with a new album. Although not their strongest to date, they continue to walk a unique path in the world of metal with perhaps only the Melvins meeting them at the odd intersection.
“Death Goes to the Winner” has it all; it starts with a delicate Christmas-themed ballad and then explodes into a mesmerising rock out before boiling down into a soupy, sludgy chug with The Velvet Underground and The Beatles being assimilated and mutated.After starting so strong, the rest of Life... The Best Game in Town doesn't quite reach the same levels of excitement but that is not to say that it isn't a solid album. The riffs are huge and the songs are pummelling, each drum beat almost starts a tectonic movement (drummer Kyle Spence must play with sledge hammers and have arms like tree trunks). It is a picky person who would ask for more.
Yet about halfway through this album it all gets a little samey. Songs like “Decades” and “A Maelstrom of Bad Decisions” bookend a decisively Harvey Milk-by-numbers middle section. The music is good (see my above description) and I cannot pick out any particular flaws but it feels like they could push themselves further. At times they seem to be just running off the same ideas that have fuelled their previous album, Special Wishes, without ever climbing to the same dizzying heights. Although this is nothing new to Harvey Milk, after their classic Courtesy and Goodwill to All Men they released The Pleaser, a less than classic album in my view. So maybe every second album will be a bruiser so whatever comes next (if there is a next) will crush like no other.
The band’s humor is still present: the album’s closer “Good Bye Blues” finishes most unexpectedly with the Looney Tunes theme tune. Along with the bizarre picture on the CD itself (a photo of person with the hole in the CD over the person’s face) keep Harvey Milk apart from the super serious bands that may sound a bit similar. This funny streak is perfectly in keeping with Preston joining the band, a man well known to mix the heavy with the strange.
So while this may not be their best effort, Life... The Best Game in Town is classic Harvey Milk. Long time fans will enjoy it and hopefully thanks to it being on the relatively high profile Hydra Head Records, it will deservingly introduce the band to a wider audience.
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