Rodan
Rusty

THE REVIEW

It's well known that Slint created two of the most revolutionary rock music albums. Among those who embraced their vision are Louisville's Rodan, who, having masterfully understood the lesson, released "Rusty", their only album, in 1994, a great and fundamental one for the post-rock scene.

The work opens with "Bible Silver Corner," composed of acoustic-style guitar interweavings that weave a sweet yet simultaneously unsettling melody connecting well with the second track "Shiner", which might seem like a scream-out-loud hardcore piece but, upon closer inspection, doesn't have much in common with it because there's no cathartic release of anger; rather, the anger remains internal and becomes psychological, and the execution is not spontaneous and immediate but more calculated and structured to create tension. Therefore, this track is just the flip side of the first one. Unease and tension (at their peak) are indeed the key words and major expressions of the album, as the following tracks do nothing but synthesize these themes: "The Everyday World Of Bodies," perhaps the masterpiece, with its ample eleven minutes of slowdowns and speed-ups, the narrated and shouted lyrics, the rhythmic frameworks, and the guitar dialogues do nothing but create an oppressive sense of anxiety that pulls the brain like a spring until it stretches it like a guitar string almost to the breaking point; the remaining three songs, "Jungle Jim," "Gauge," and "Tooth Fairy Retribution Manifesto," averaging seven minutes each, continue to tread these paths, or rather trails, because these songs give the idea of narratives that evolve and change without leading to anything but increasing fear (very Kafkaesque), like getting lost in a dense, dark forest without being able to find a way out among the animal calls, the same sensation.

Perhaps the best thing Rodan could have done after this album was to break up, as it would have been difficult to produce a follow-up worthy of this work and also because the members went on to form very important bands (just think of the "June of 44" of guitarist Jeff Mueller) that still reinterpreted the legacy of this seminal work. The cover is splendid also because it is very significant, as during the listening experience you will feel just like that butterfly (a symbol of freedom) trapped in a box among electric wires and warm artificial lights, in a desperate attempt to escape.