Courtesy of bandcamp
Bands often spend a lot of time in the underground carving out names for themselves. There are the bands that eventually break out and become big. There are also bands that fade into the background, never gaining enough traction to make waves.
Then there are bands like Nakatomi Plaza, which become known without the mainstream success. When that band broke up a couple years ago, singer Oscar Albis Rodriguez trudged on with a new band, Ghost Robot Ninja Bear, to pick up where he left off.
With GRNB’s debut full length, Rodriguez and his new bandmates pack a powerful punch. It’s a gritty and loud, yet fun album that mixes all the best aspects of Fugazi, At the Drive-In and, of course, Nakatomi Plaza. There’s definitely a degree of heaviness and thrash here, but there’s plenty of melody, like on the soaring opener “The Curtain Call.”
The veteran Rodriguez has the chops for melodic singing and hardcore punk gravelly shouts and easily transitions between both, screaming on “Pilots” and swooning on “Obviously Midnight.”
He’s put in his time, and it feels like he and his bandmates are having a good time on this record. He certainly has plenty left in the tank, too, as evidenced on “Last Time We Talked” where Rodriguez shouts, “I’m not done, I’m having too much fun. It’s not over for me now, it’s just begun.”
Rodriguez achieved acclaim with Nakatomi Plaza. Maybe Ghost Robot Ninja Bear can be an acclaimed band too instead of just another project of a proven musician. This is a good start.
8.5 Golden Eggs
Top tracks: “The Curtain Call,” “I Can’t Decide,” “Swamps of Nova”
