RX Bandits’ last couple of albums saw them shying away more and more from their skapunk roots and with the departure of trombone player Chris Sheets, this has never been more true than on “Mandala”, the band’s latest effort.
Opener “My Lonesome Only Friend” starts off nicely with some keyboard sounds that lead to dueling guitars before the whole thing bursts open in this bigass rock song that even includes a cool solo. It’s a little busy but what the heck. At least it immediately lets you know that you are in for an adventurous trip .
As you move on, it can be hard to keep track of all the sudden rhythm changes with the bass and guitars veering off in different directions and all. And then there’s the electronic wizardry that they have thrown in as well (“It’s Only Another Parsec…”). On top of that vocalist ? proves he has some flexible vocal chords going from falsetto to yelling in less than one second. It’s a little bit of everything thrown together but somehow they manage to keep their shit together most of the time.
It’s not the easiest album to get into and occasionally these guys are just plain noodling away but still... if there’s any band out there to compare them to, I’d say that these guys now sound like a mix of Dredg and The Mars Volta. They’re just as experimental and rocking as Dredg but sometimes a little too self-indulgent. Overall they’ve done a solid job on “Mandala” though.
Score: 6.5 out of 10
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