Unbiased is the Name of the Game

I wrote a review of the new Tantric record the other day for a blog I contribute to. To say I am not a fan would be an honest statement. What a joke this record was. I may have been a little too brutal in my piece... brutal enough anyway that the editor decided against running it in record time. So I'll just print it here. No record labels are paying for banner ads here anytime soon.

Tantric
Mind Control
Label: Silent Majority

What came first, the chicken or the egg? Who’s on first? Those are classic dilemmas that is the baffling ‘what happens to modern rock when time keeps moving forward?’ Thank Tantric for finally answering this riddle: it just stays the same.

The late nineties were a terrible time for rock music. Everything got muddy and the lines between grunge, rap, metal and soft rock were horribly crossed. It was the sound of the suburbs and it can still be heard coming from pickup trucks pulling out of mini marts all across the American Midwest.

Tantric is one of the survivors but calling them that is just a nice way of calling them the Warrant of the new millennium. Mind Control is purely NASCAR rock; it’s dumb, romantically heavy and packaged for thirty second commercials for pro wrestling or the county fair.

The title track chugs along reminding us of the better memories from this era: a big chorus and race track ready riff straight from the better Filter songs. It’s American rock and roll and that’s a sad thing for our country. ‘Fall to the Ground’ is the same song slowed down to a brisk trot. Another big chorus and another radio dial turned to the classic rock station for a little relief.

‘Kick Back’, ‘Run Out’… I could continue to name song titles but it’s like changing white socks, they are all the same it’s just a lesson in futility.

Maybe this review is harsh but as this country enters a brave new era can we not just let go of this Busch era pickup truck rock? Big songs do not always come with big ideas.

If you like Tantric you might also like: window decals of cartoon characters pissing on car company logos, fishing and Nickleback.