Kingcrimsonprog After adding trumpets and saxaphones into their sound on 1998’s The Elephant Riders album and releasing the very loose and live sounding Jam Room album in 1999, Clutch decided to move in a different direction and released Pure Rock Fury.

Released in 2001, against the height of the Nu Metal movement, Pure Rock Fury found Clutch delivering a very focused and direct set of hard and heavy songs. Almost sounding a reaction to Jam Room’s loose and jammed out nature, this album sounds lazer beam focused and is the band’s most rehearsed and ‘produced,’ sounding record to date. Just compare the reworked version of ‘Sinkemlow,’ found here with ‘Sink ‘Em Low,’ from Jam Room to understand the difference.

The album contains a fair amount of fast and hard rock songs with a metal edge to the sound, which fully justifies the album’s title. Don’t be concerned about a lack of variety however, tempos vary and there is still a lot of groove on the album. The album even contains the track “Careful With that Mic…” which is done in a rap metal style, only with Clutch’s own unique sense of humour.

Highlights include the musically impressive ‘Red Horse Rainbows,’ and the lyrically impressive ‘The Great Outdoors,’ as well as the evocative ‘A Drink To The Dead.’

Pure Rock Fury is a very unique album, even within the band’s own catalogue and no other Clutch album really sounds much like this. The production job is unlike any of their other more 70s influenced production jobs, and the songs are all fairly short and direct.

Even though the superficial differences cause Pure Rock Fury to sound different to other Clutch albums, it is still a great record, full of the same musicianship and brilliant lyrics that make the band so vital. New comers may be better suited trying a different album to get a better feel of the band’s sound overall. Clutch fans should all buy a copy, and enjoy Clutch as seen through a different filter than usual.