 Media Credit: Courtesy Chief Beef
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With Equilibrium, Chief Beef have delivered their best release yet, one that combines the best songs the trio's written with the best production they've had to date. Here, loud and clear, is the band's marriage of post-hardcore and prog-rock, a mix of the sounds Jawbox, Shiner, Tool and Iron Maiden all had to offer: syncopated drums that alternate heavy pounding beats with intricate, dexterous fills; bass lines that are the very definition of bottom end, especially on "Insulation Tape" and "Mighty Roller;" and guitar lines that are often more melody than riffs, riding easily along the incredibly dynamic rhythm section that holds it all together. And while the band's abilities and production have improved, so too have the songs: "Pendulum" deftly balances skittering post-punk bombast with fluid reggae-like verses; "Intermission" nails a calmness that perfectly fits the song's title; "Mighty Roller," with it's heavy riffs and open space, is the embodiment of confusion and bitterness that's directed at the commercialism it savages; "The Stagnant Get Removed" contains the band's best chorus to date. It all culminates in the aptly named "Face Melter," the band's finest song yet, an instrumental that's as catchy as it is powerful.
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