WAX PEOPLE — Wax People (review)

WAX PEOPLE — Wax People album cover EP · 2021 · Avant-garde Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
Rowdy wickedly wild, unhinged and frenetic brutal math prog rock is what Los Angeles based WAX PEOPLE is all about and now in the year 2021 this newbie band on the block has released its terrifying debut album. Consisting of Michael Mull (bass clarinet), Rajan Davis (guitar), Jacob Richards (drums) and Rusty Kennedy (bass), this adventurous band implements the knotty textures of unadulterated math rock, contorts it all into avant-prog complexities and then adds a heaping of avant-metal heft. The result of this concoction is a fiery fueled frenzy of brutal prog splendor with the energetic delivery of extreme metal.

Five tracks at only 25 minutes but this is the perfect running time for such head spinning vertigo inducing noise prog that is exclusively instrumental but due to the presence of a bass clarinet sounds fairly unique. Sounding somewhat like a caffeinated mix of France’s Jean Louis and The Flying Luttenbachers, WAX PEOPLE doesn’t really know if it wants to be no wave or what i deem as meth rock, the kind of math rock performed on high doses of whatever! The Jean Louis references apply to the complex compositional fortitude whereas the Lutternbachers are a relevant comparison in terms of the herky jerky math rock and tones and timbres.

Living up to the oft used term brutal prog, this one is incessantly proggy with crazy time signature changes that are as unpredictable as Lady Gaga’s attire and always noisy, dissonant, aggressive and energetic. Bass clarinet solos add an even weirder element otherwise drumming is fairly robotic (but not always) but in a good way. Swarms of sound can become monotonous in a no wave way and then again things can change quickly and unexpectedly. This is the kind of avant-prog your parents didn’t tell you about. Some sort of Henry Cow running of the bulls with the amps turned well beyond 11 shindig. The whole experience is like a volcanic eruption where sonic pyroclastic flows engulf sanity with occasional oozing flows of sound. Of course it’s more than enough to melt an entire wax museum!

Obviously this noisy raucous is not for the feint of heart and reserved for the niche of proggers who want everything on steroids. Heavy distortion? Check. Ridiculously helter skelter and filled with prog extremes with every cadence? Oh yeah. Chaotic brain malfunctioning bass clarinet skronk? Freekin A! Interesting compositions that aren’t just random noise? Well, sorta. However you slice it, this is for the hardcores. Let the craving for unrestrained prog gluttony to sink its hooks into your psyche and let er rip. Particularly satisfying is the closing “Scissor” which is like the shredding version of avant-prog meth rock / metal. OMG. Me likey. This is what it would be like if Toby Driver joined The Flying Luttenbachers with Jean Louis joining in.
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