MINUS - Halldor Laxness
June 5, 2003, 20 years ago
(Victory)
Possibly a new kind of hard rock, the improbably titled Halldor Laxness (named for an Icelandic author) combines three or four shades of low and mid-fi alternative (right up to White Stripes etc.) with pounding metal production values somewhat akin to the thick guitar coagulations of Anders Friden's Passenger album. Psyching you out, deking the goalie and slipping in through the back door is an explosive traditional metal, one that is something like thrash mixed with punk mixed with an old Metallica chug. A lot of music has gone down since the band's Jesus Christ Bobby debut from '01, and this young band of Icelanders has reacted with aplomb, creating a refreshing, accessible alloy between the currently in vogue loud rock and the heft, power and pummel of metal. On-board masterpiece: My Name Is Cocaine, a devastating and intelligent anti-drug anthem that demonstrates well the band's pure metal butted up against ethereal, almost Giant Sand-like breaks. Much preferred than the weakly appointed Queens Of The Stone Age, Minus bring back a guitar-slinging alternative quake not felt since the third Dinosaur Jr album.
