Clutch: Blast Tyrant (2LP, deluxe edition) [WEATHERMAKER MUSIC]

Why you'll love it

This Weathermaker Music deluxe edition spreads the album over a 180g 2LP set and adds an acoustic take of "The Regulator." It's the band's sixth studio album, and Clutch reissued it on their own label.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Bonus track

About the album

The full title is Blast Tyrant Atlas of the Invisible World with Illustrations of Strange Beasts and Phantoms, which tells you most of what you need to know about Neil Fallon as a lyricist. Clutch had spent a decade grinding out heavy, groove-heavy rock from Maryland, and here they sharpened it to a point: tight riffs, swinging drums and Fallon preaching like a carnival barker who has read too much folklore.

Producer Machine recorded the drums at Water Music in Hoboken and the guitars and vocals at his Machine Shop, with extra sessions in Jean-Paul Gaster's living room. "Mercury" is a quick blast, "Profits of Doom" and "The Mob Goes Wild" are the big shout-alongs, "The Regulator" slows to a dusty blues, and "Spleen Merchant" and "(In the Wake of) The Swollen Goat" keep the stoner swagger rolling.

Ryan Dunn of Jackass made the video for "The Mob Goes Wild." Most bands record in a studio; Clutch also used a drummer's living room, which explains a great deal about the groove and possibly the state of his carpet.

Also at Kops: more Clutch on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Weathermaker Music (cat# WM018), a reissue of the 2004 album.