Pulling Teeth
Previous Pulling Teeth Reviews:
Pulling Teeth Demo
Pulling Teeth "Vicious Skin"
These crazy fuckers who are from Baltimore, MD feature members of the Slumords, The Spark, Never Enough, and Desperate Measure. They play a holy terror brand of hardcore that is a amalgam of Integrity, Haymaker/Left For Dead, Ringworm, etc,. But if you didn't already know this, man you've been asleep for the last year. Since the release of their critically acclaimed "Vicious Skin" album, they have been burning up the hardcore landscape, which ultimately led to Deathwish Records snagging these guys up, which is a match made in heaven as far as I'm concerned. And I got to say, it's nice to see a band that I have been jocking the shit out of since I heard their demo 2 plus years ago make a name for themselves. I couldn't be more happy for Dom and boys.
Well, what has changed since "Vicious Skin" and "Martyr Immortal"? Absolutely nothing! And trust me, that is more than a good thing. When I first saw the artwork for this album I knew what I would be getting, more awesome holy terror hardcore. And even though it seems since Pulling Teeth popped up a couple years ago, there has been quite a resurgence of the holy terror style of hardcore. Now while it could certainly be beaten to death, like almost every other form of music, I'd rather have a holy terror trend than some emo bullshit, or even youth crew for that matter.
With having said that, Pulling Teeth offers up 12 new tracks, well, actually 9 because "Stonethrowers", "Sick and Tired" and "Basically Dead" were on the split that they did with Frightener that came out early this year. Which is fine with me because all three of those songs are mint.
One of the best things about how these guys go about song writing is how they'll start a song off with a solo, or throw it somewhere untypical to solo placement. Another great thing about their approach is that they constantly look to change things up, adding little nuances, bells and whistles if you will to certain parts of the riff during the second time around. And considering how short the bulk of their songs are, these slight little changes account for a lot.
The opening track "With Avarice" is the perfect song to open an album with. It starts up with some caustic feedback and kicks into a fast moving riff. There is no real breakdown, nor any leads, it just plows through its 1:31 of time. The following track "Dead Is Dead" starts off with a blast beat and then kicks into an awesome riff with a sweet solo and then goes into two stomp riffs until the song ends. All in 40 seconds believe it or not! The third track "Clipped Wings" has a perfect balance of hardcore and metal, and the tremolo picking at the end of the riff, ah goodness. And the solo midway through has great timing and placement. One of the best tracks, "Stonethrowers" is next and ironically is the same exact length as "Clipped Wings", 1:23. The song starts off really fast and then a short, succinct lead comes in, then the band just grinds to a halt, and then back into a mid paced groove and a nice little bend riff. Next up is "Shiteaters", which is so sinister it'll melt faces. There's plenty of bend notes, tremolo picking, etc,. Man, that hammer on part at the 1 minute mark is my favorite part of the CD. The whole song just sounds evil as shit. "Sick And Tired" is another evil mother fucker, it starts off swift footed and halfway through the song they slow things to a churning pace for the reminder of the song. The little fake-out with the harmonics makes you think the song is over, but nope. "Rains" which is another stellar track is :58 and utilizes every second. They use the old two time formula as opposed to four for the first two riffs of the song until they add one final riff to close off the song. Up next is "Basically Dead" and it starts off with one of the more straight up hardcore riffs with a sweet lead coming in at the end of the riff. After that they pull out yet another riff rooted firmly in hardcore until they use a really evil sounding riff accented by a slick lead to close things off. The titled track "Martyr Immortal" opens with a quality 45 second intro that leads perfectly into a galloping metallic riff and features nice changes in tempo. The weird thing about the track is it's 3:50 long but the last 1:50 is an instrumental which is titled "Mori Vincent Omnes", so it's like a two for one deal. "Black Skies" is the longest single song, totaling 2:56 of time. It features a ton of echo/reverb. The opening riff is a sweet tease, making you wish it was longer but it comes in later in the song and played a couple more times. After that the song slows down and a vicious solo closes the song. "Ashes In Dust" is a 22 second rager that just builds up to eruption which leads into the closing track "Dismissed In Time", which is a really eerie and atmospheric instrumental with some sound clips placed in. Usually I can't stand when bands do this but it's actually a really chill listen and has some awesome guitar work.
The lyrics overall maintain a disdain and a bleak outlook for mankind, which is of course what you would expect from a holy terror band. However, they do a good job of mixing up the issues and subject matter of the songs. "With Avarice" is about how mankind just moves from place to place and rapes the Earth, it is much like "Prepare for The Worst" from "Vicious Skin". "Dead Is Dead" gives me the impression that the vocalist is a vegetarian–"from forest to desert, a land of stress. We kill for what we do not need, yet still we justify. I see no reason for all this death." "Stonethrowers" is about how our government goes around starting wars when most people just want peace, though it doesn't come outright and say it. "Shiteaters" uses the theme of the quick fix that people tend to favor in our society. It's an idea I've seen being used more and more. "Rains" is about how they wished the rain would wash away mankind. "Martyr Immortal" is about how we have grown stagnant; religion, the economy, social control all need reforming. Those are just some of the better lyrical songs, though all are good in their own way.
Like "Vicious Skin", this was recorded by Mike Bossier over at Oblivion Studios and again was mastered by Scott Hull. This recording is even better than the last time around, which stems mostly from the flawless incorporation of echo/reverb (see "Black Skies"). The guitar tone is evil and mean as shit, the bass tone has a great tone and plenty of presence, the vocals sound amazing and the drums are damn near perfect.
The artwork from their last album was my favorite of 2006 and not surprising, this is my favorite artwork of 2007. The layout is printed on matte stock and is a three page fold out booklet. The lyrics are displayed over three greyscale live shots with the lyrics printed in green which makes for an interesting contrast. On the opposite side, the two pages (other than the front cover) are used to displayed a dual page greyscale picture of the vocalist in front of a group of frenzied individuals.
Rating: 5/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: Dead Is Dead, Stonethrowers, Shiteaters and Martyr Immortal
Synopsis: Most of you will just end up reading this because I think this is my longest review I've ever written. Pretty much all you need to know is that this is the best hardcore record to come out this year and will be so when the year ends in less than 2 months. Best hardcore record of 2007, without fucking question.