Music Banter - View Single Post - 12 For '12: Anteater's Top Albums Of 2012

Anteater · 12-20-2012, 02:52 PM

8. Twelve Foot Ninja - Silent Machine

Australia, in recent years atleast, has become something of a mecca for unusual and entertaining rock bands who draw upon the adventurous spirit spearheaded by many a 90's act (Faith No More, Deftones, Incubus) whilst pummeling in semantic grooves learned from the halls of T&M (Tool & Meshuggah) University in equal measure. Some of these groups have even achieved international success, such as Karnivool and The Butterfly Effect.

That being said, the newest and perhaps most promising bunch of this Down Under-stated prog scene are Twelve Foot Ninja, who have slowly but surely been building their celebrity online through a series of entertaining interviews, videos and even a freakin' track-by-track graphic novel as part of the pre-release hype engine in celebration of debut album Silent Machine, released earlier this year to many an excited fan....including myself.

Listening through Silent Machine the first time, you are struck by a few things immediately as opening number 'Coming For You' stampedes into the room: these guys not only know how to bend disparate styles and genres into the great alt. rock umbrella without undercutting the songwriting....they do it really, really, really fucking well. Dispersing a Calypso/reggae bridge and hook amidst a very Tool-esque chord progression isn't something just anyone can pull off, but these guys blow it out of the water, and the rest of the album displays that same dynamic reach in spades. The title track, my favorite song off the album, glides along the theatrical borderline between Queensryche and Faith No More with an ease that's nearly horrifying....but in a way that compels repeat listens en masse.

This is a bizarre, but wonderful metalized album that will certainly be cementing Twelve Foot Ninja as a musical magnate in 2013 and beyond, vehemently reviving that experimental yet catchy sense of ferocity I thought lieth in the corpses of Dog Fashion Disco and Boy Hits Car.

As good as Deftones' Koi No Yokan was, this record makes them look almost pedestrian in comparison, and thus its here instead of them.