“All the time we spent together as a band touring, and gigging together and interacting, has made us bolder in terms of the kind of material we've dared to write for this album,” adds guitarist Guthrie Govan. The band feels that being joined at the hip for the past two years helped them become a stronger unit, which set them on a more unconventional course. BUNGLE-infused metal ('Living The Dream'), to the rhythmically serpentine rock/fusion-esque title track.
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We want to push this thing further, as far as we can, wherever that goes.”Ĭulture Clash proves to be a more adventurous piece of work for the trio, with everything from techno-fusion ('Dance Of The Aristocrats'), to nitro-powered rockabilly (the Ren-and-Stimpy-influenced 'Louisville Stomp'), to MR. It's like, 'OK, you dug all that crazy stuff on the first one, eh? Well, here, check this out.' We don't want to rest on our laurels. “So this record, I feel like, is a response to that amazing response. We're all beyond grateful for that,” states bassist Bryan Beller. “We've all been totally blown away by the reaction to the first album, the live album, and just us becoming a band in general. That’s evidenced by the album’s title alone, which derives its name from a sly reference to the Coen Brothers’ film A Serious Man, and doubles as an allusion to the band’s multi-national makeup (Govan is British Beller is American Minnemann is German).
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That’s not surprising considering the genre-defying panoply of the band’s true influences: FRANK ZAPPA, JEFF BECK, JOHN SCOFIELD, MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, PINK FLOYD, QUEEN, KING CRIMSON, THE POLICE, KRAFTWERK, BJORK, RETURN TO FOREVER, and more…a variety of which show up in each band member’s individual compositional style, as they’re all contributing songwriters.Ĭulture Clash honors the band’s panoramic potpourri of influences, while showing up as a more aggressive, intensely-written album that picks up where the band’s first effort left off – all while retaining a quirky Zappa-influenced refusal to take themselves too seriously.
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The band’s 2011 self-titled instant-classic debut album proved irresistible to fans of guitar-driven instrumental rock (think Vai, Satriani) but ended up crossing over both ways, making inroads with the progressive (Dream Theater) and modern technical metal (ANIMALS AS LEADERS, MESHUGGAH, PERIPHERY) crowds alike.