The Satanic Satanist - Portugal. the Man

After being in awe of their performance at Bonnaroo this year I wasted no time in getting my hands on Churchmouth, a monster of an album. It's dark, devloping, moody, soulful and the way they blends Sanata like jams into Mars Volta like rock explosions is unique in the way that makes you excited to be different. The mystery of this Alaska based band hung heavy on me as I felt I was behind the curve on such an aspiring group, so I anxious to shed the shadow and discover who they really are on their new LP The Satanic Satanist. Sadly, they are not the dark horse in the new era of rock. All the ways that caught my attention live and drew me in more on the previous album have been washed over and smoothed out. The production quality leaves this album seemingly bland at times and far too pop oriented for their audience. This album left me wanting far more, the songs seem to lack depth and there is far too little draw to play them again. It is almost a happy album, the opposite of what I assumed they would put out. Dissapointed. I'll wait to see them live again before spending too much effort on this album.