ninehertz

Spider Kitten have always done things their own way - they've been around for 24 years now, creating their own music, not following trends - just being them. But The Truth Is Caustic To Love takes it to the extreme, a concoction of styles which should be awkward bedfellows and more pertinently, a clear and tangible sense of impatience - songs that feel half thought out and then abandoned half as quick, like they've gone into the studio before fully figuring out their songs. And what's strangest is that it works - it is hard to fathom but easy to admire, a strong feeling of a band completely at ease with themselves and creating something unique from that state.

It should be frustrating but rarely is; at worst, for example at a moment when it might move away abruptly from a groove you were just settling into you can only chuckle wryly at their restlessness. What is at its core? Their history is in stoner/doom, the most common thread in their discography and previous lives. It is here, to an extent. There is a strong sense of country and western soundtrack influence pervading throughout. And then there's an undeniable Alice in Chains vibe, particularly through the Staley-esque vocal stylings. There are heavy moments, acoustic tracks, blues numbers.

What is different is how they move from one to the other - track to track or in the same song. Febrile and Taciturn completely changes, a caterpillar dissolving inside its cocoon and reappearing as something altogether different, whilst 13 on 6 opens the whole affair with long periods of minimalistic ambience, only to crash into its ending with a foreboding doom riff. Others would build their central song all around that riff and rich tone, but Spider Kitten are calm with it, playing it on feel. There are fourteen tracks here, a cutting shop floor of ideas strewn around - tracks that feel like building to epic doom cut short before two minutes arise, others where it feels like they got distracted and simply changed tack accordingly.

For the whole, it works and if you roll with it can be a lot of fun. This is an album of tenacity and confidence. There's almost this sense of irony that they are so obviously at ease with themselves, un-requiring of outside confirmation, that it has created something so unique. Yes, it can be an awkward and at times frustrating listen, but it'll more often make you smile.