Fierce. That was the first word that came to mind on hearing London foursome Teeth Of The Sea's third album Master. Fierce, swiftly followed by more impressions, demolition-derbying into each other inside my buffeted brain: brutal, raging, devouring, relentless. Master immediately made its mark on me as a work of consumption, destruction. It was flashbang-bright, senses-blinding sonic warfare to be played out on the mid-size stages of Britain's touring circuit, an instant favourite of the year so far as these ravaged ears were concerned.
Highly Deadly Black Tarantula is something else entirely. Where Master stomped and bruised, this is more cerebral, more sinister than its makers' previous collection, or indeed anything they've committed to public-facing physical or digital mediums since forming in 2006. Multiple listens on from my introduction to these six diverse tracks, arrangements which just about hold together as a single body of work but could easily be mistaken for material by wholly different groups if rearranged and aired without any explanation, I'm still unsure of where Highly Deadly sits with me, physically. I like it, clearly – my play count backs that up. But with each cycle my cloudy thoughts become no clearer as to what Teeth Of The Sea are saying with this fourth LP, what it's conceptual core is and how they perceive their audience feeling once its climactic computer-y white noise has subsided...
Read the rest of the review here: The Quietus
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