Tomahawk - Anonymous
Wow, this is certainly not what I expected. Again, my expectations getting in the way, but I don’t think any fan of Tomahawk can deny that this album practically came out of nowhere in terms of musical anticipation.
For the first few tracks I was hard-pressed to believe that this was actually a Tomahawk album, and not something more from Fantomas. It took me a couple of solid listens before I started to see the resemblance. I’m still convinced this is a bit of a mix between Delirium Cordia-era Fantomas, a touch of Mr. Bungle, and a sprinkle of non-Patton Secret Chiefs 3.
While there’s no doubt about the Native American theme here, I don’t think this is an easy concept album to pull off. However, Tomahawk pulled it off and there’s no question about it. While the band was originally Mike Patton’s most "normal" band, it leads me to believe that there will be a lot of disappointed listeners out there. To the generic love-Patton-for-Patton fans, this will definitely be an awesome addition to the CD collection.
While the majority is typical Patton non-lyrical vocal mastery (a bit too atypical for Tomahawk maybe), there are still some great not-as-weird tracks on here, like Totem. But hey, that’s not why the hardcore fans are looking to this album. There is also a fair share of just bizarre tracks, the first that comes to mind is Antelope Ceremony, which finds Patton doing a bit of a vocal duet alongside a very odd (dare I say happy) guitar riff very repetitively. Going back to the other side, there is at least one or two tracks like Sun Dance which previous Tomahawk fans will recognize with a very familiar style and typical riffs.
Being a Native-inspired album, I’ve certainly noticed a bit of a wider range of soundscapes, and Mike Patton’s vocal chanting may be some of my favourite of his yet — and after about 50 listens I’ll have started to pick on them, and I’m sure I’ll be chanting them in my car on the long drives to work.
I wish I had more to say about this album, but I’m not sure I do. I’ve given it a few listens, and I’m pretty happy with it. It’s going to be hard to make this a short-term, repetitive listen, but I do see it as something I’ll come back to again and again over time — which is the way I am with all of Patton’s work.