Automatic Thrill

Gluecifer

Sony/Epic Scandinavia & SPV/Steamhammer, 2004

http://www.gluecifer.net

REVIEW BY: Chris Harlow

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 02/24/2004

It's only February but I may be reporting history by way of this review. Over the years, I have listened to a lot of hard rock music and I have seen a lot of bands progressively wither from the heights that put them on the radar in the first place. I'm thinking of the Metallica slide right now. It could also be the bad joke known as the post-'90s Aerosmith experiment. Can anybody name a Def Leppard tune since Hysteria? Surely, you catch my drift. The proverbial pots of gold that these bands have been working towards may as well be filled with doo-doo as far as I'm concerned.

With Gluecifer having released their fifth full length album, Automatic Thrill, a couple of weeks ago, Oslo, Norway's blue collar rockers are finding themselves at the same proverbial crossroad in my estimation. The band's first three albums had progressively moved them into the stream of hard rock consciousness in Europe before 2002's Basement Apes was independently financed and recorded by the group prior to being shopped to the two labels mentioned above. And while the album has sold well in Norway, moving just shy of the 20,000 units needed for gold status, many critics including myself consider the effort as being merely an average one.

So, as I have listened to Automatic Thrill for the past couple of weeks, the first thought that hits me on each listen is that Gluecifer have orchestrated one of the greatest about-faces in recent music memory. Automatic Thrill is definitely a return to the band's hard rock roots and not an extension of the slow death disease that the other bands I've just mentioned have experienced.

First, I have to mention that the track "Car Full of Stash" hits a groove that hasn't had me this excited since I first heard "Evil Matcher" years ago. And that's saying a lot as there have been a lot of really good Gluecifer songs written since "Evil Matcher" was included on the band's first full-length album my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250 Ridin' the Tiger.

I've also alluded to the fact in previous Gluecifer reviews that vocalist Biff Malibu has always had a penchant for articulating his words in a cleverly witty fashion while all but straying from that formula on the Basement Apes recording. But, in a notable return to form, he actually exceeds all previous boundaries in the song, "Dingdong Thing". And now I've got to tell you with a straight face -- o.k., it's really a smirk -- that a chorus with the words:

"Everybody ding everybody dong everybody singing the monkey song like I do, I do, I do" "Everybody dong everybody ding, monkey boy doing the monkey thing like I do, I do, I do"

actually works within the context of this album. Really! All I'll suggest is that you forget the fact that Malibu once lyrically professed himself as a "slayer of the dorks" back in the day ("Leather Chair") as he now teeters on joining the clan himself.

Since I've now mentioned that Automatic Thrill has returned Gluecifer back to their no-frills style of hard rock, I should also report that a good friend of mine recently asked if Automatic Thrill brought back the call and response choruses that Malibu has successfully shared with his guitarists in the past. I had to double take for a second as that was an obvious observation I had always overlooked and taken for granted. Well, the answer is no, but the no-nonsense rockers on Automatic Thrill like the title track "Dr. Doktor" and "A Call from the Other Side" do absolutely nothing to harm Gluecifer's ability to captivate on this album.

To the band's credit, their return to prominence on Automatic Thrill is done in a way that keeps the album from sounding stale. For instance, the last track, "The Good Times Used to Kill Me," is a Gluecifer experiment that has to be applauded. The loose and lo-fi background guitar picking from Captain Poon, Raldo Useless, and bassist Stu Manx allows Malibu to pull off a Jim Morrison-esque ramble like that found on the Doors memoirist track, "The End." Reflecting on the good times of his past, an obviously older and wiser Malibu sorts through his idle thoughts as seen through various passerby in the walk of life. The realization is that while the good times used to kill him, now he is good at killing time.

The only real dent to my claims that Automatic Thrill is everything that Basement Apes proved not to be is the fact that the song "Freeride" was obviously picked up off the Basement Apes cutting room floor. It sounds like a spot-on lackluster extension of any song from the last half of that album.

I'm a betting man. Gluecifer should not only find gold status in their home country with this release but they'll do it quickly because they have written an album that suits their strengths. This will all but insure that they extract something out of that pot with a much more fragrant scent than some of their seasoned hard rock contemporaries.

Rating: A-

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© 2004 Chris Harlow and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Sony/Epic Scandinavia & SPV/Steamhammer, and is used for informational purposes only.