IZ

The latest offering from long-running experimental guitar band IZ is filled with the kind of metallic riffs the project has often used to produce its idiosyncratic art rock. Part Frank Zappa in a heavy and unpredictable mode, part Motörhead's gritty drive and part Dinosaur Jr's penchant for warped, melodic aggression,...

By Tom Murphy

November 2, 2011

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The latest offering from long-running experimental guitar band IZ is filled with the kind of metallic riffs the project has often used to produce its idiosyncratic art rock. Part Frank Zappa in a heavy and unpredictable mode, part Motörhead's gritty drive and part Dinosaur Jr's penchant for warped, melodic aggression, this set of songs takes the band in new and interesting directions. "Eye," especially, sounds like what would have happened if a Guitar Institute grad had the guitar chops and the imagination to use those skills in a way that recalls Secondhand Daylight-era Magazine or the Melvins: darkly surreal yet expansive. This is not a prog album, but the influence of that aesthetic is obvious; here it has real bite with a touch of dreaminess.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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Twitter: @simianthinker