Keelhaul
Subject To Change Without Notice

Sometimes you have to be thankful to certain groups that in some moments of lucidity define their work so effectively that the poor reviewer is left with nothing to do but to acknowledge it all. Subject to change without notice.
The songs by Keelhaul are exactly like that, unpredictable, with very frequent tempo changes but at the same time cohesive and homogeneous despite their intricate structure.
Forget the classic verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus pattern, it will even be difficult to distinguish one riff from another due to the sheer amount of material compressed into the song form. "Subject To Change Without Notice" is therefore like a cardboard container filled to the brim and about to explode.

The album cover is already a warning for anyone about to put the CD in the player without knowing the Keelhaul, a faceless child, at the helm of a boat ten times larger than him. If we associate this image with the album title, we can immediately draw conclusions: the impossibility of controlling and directing univocally everything that is happening.
In fact, this is the fixation of the Cleveland band, the concept of control and especially the fascination felt at the moment when one is about to lose it. The group itself has declared that this "obsession" was born after listening to an album released in 1994 by Earache and recorded by Brutal Truth, the title was "Need To Control"... Got the concept?

Nothing on the album is left to chance: from the drum riffs that seem to get lost in a thousand directions only to find themselves at the right point and moment, to the bass lines that recall sounds and paths from the seventies, passing through guitar rhythms that are sometimes hypnotic and sometimes dragging. It all fits into a design, a project that is revealed in every single note.
Some points of contact can be found with bands like Isis (not surprisingly label mates), Botch, and Neurosis but the originality is nevertheless at absolute levels. So original that they personally remind me of the harder King Crimson in the way they (de)structure songs; but I repeat every reference is purely subjective and coincidental. These crazy guys from Cleveland love to disorient the listener and they do it with a unique style, hysterical and fast, frenzied and devastating.

The hardcore roots of the group are more marked in the only sung tracks of the album (a bone-crushing rocket like "Shackleton" and side-hitting blows like "Cruel Shoes" and "Carl Vs. 10000 LB Shadows"), while in the remaining available time, Keelhaul "exhaust" us with extemporaneous instrumental digressions.
Sometimes these bursts take the form of robust and full-bodied groove boulders ("Answer The Kitchen", "Randall"), other times skewed rhythms and suffocating loops prevail ("The Gooch").
But where the band hits full on is in the smoky and altered tangles, pieces like the very long "Driver's Bread", the subdued "HMG", or the ambiguous "Mash The Sandwich" are pearls of technical prowess and immense writing ability.
A gigantic journey through tempo changes, guitar roars, liquid psychedelic sensations, and mood variations that leave you stunned. The imposing musical beast proceeds to the end without uttering another word, managing surprisingly to be just as communicative.

This and even more are Keelhaul. Understanding them or not is something that happens immediately because the album is indeed complex but at the same time totally direct. There are no refrains to learn or bridges that repeat, the beauty lies in enjoying the sound flow.
An almost entirely instrumental hardcore album. Possible? No, indispensable.