Posted by Long before he became a minor meme with his version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme, Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton’s myriad projects stretched from crooning to screaming freeform improv. The relatively linear Tomahawk, therefore, represented something almost as accessible as his best known work. Or at least as accessible as a band can be, while also releasing an entire album themed around traditional Native American music.
For all Patton’s talents, however, Tomahawk’s fifth album ‘Tonic Immobility’ feels as if it has been directed by Duane Denison’s guitar work. His inimitable amalgamation of punk, metal, jazz and country flair provides both a disconcerting ambience and the dynamic thrill of bolting from shrill, spacious spookiness to full-on violence. The resulting record feels like a soundtrack for a Lynchian character whose nefarious deeds are cloaked by his detachment from the world around him.
The opening half of ‘Tonic Immobility’ is full of archetypal Tomahawk moments, with ‘Business Casual’ and ‘Predators and Scavengers’ heightening the dread before going for the jugular. Its midpoint highlight, ‘Tattoo Zero’, lures with the promise of some beautiful balladeering before – you guessed it – Denison delivers dissonance while Patton tortures and trills.
The remainder mostly plays to atmosphere rather than aggression, with ‘Howlie’, ‘Eureka’ and ‘Sidewinder’ all building a foreboding calm before everything again degenerates. The latter possesses a theatrical zeal, moving at will from afterhours cabaret to severed shrieks before Patton intones the semi-spoken closing section like some kind of demented preacher.
Although ‘Tonic Immobility’ detonates with the closing one-two of ‘Recoil’ and ‘Dog Eat Dog’, it never quite peaks. It lacks a killer moment like ‘God Hates A Coward’ or ‘Rape This Day’, but instead channels the strongest trait of their debut album. Like that record, ‘Tonic Immobility’ establishes a consistently immersive pull into a world that you don’t want to be in, but that you can’t quite escape.
8/10
Words: Ben Hopkins
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