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The first time I heard this album was also the first time I encountered Lanegan's voice. It might sound strange, but my initial impression was to compare it to Kip Trevor, the voice of the forgotten Black Widow. Boh?! Perhaps that sulfurous attitude full of "lyrical anger" (to quote the good Blackdog) led me to such a comparison. However, there wasn’t much more in common beyond that.
If I had to give an ancestor to these Screaming Trees, I would probably mention the myriad of garage bands that populated those fertile, unrepeatable sixties. So, voilà with the names: 13th Floor Elevators first and foremost, the Electric Prunes, and then the Count Five with their bouncing keyboards. Even something from Blue Cheer, if we want to sound intellectual. But really, as long as one is willing to listen to any of the hidden gems in one of the four Nuggets, all doubts will be dispelled. If you then go to Wikipedia and look up this album, you will find it under the label "neo-psychedelia". Ah yes, labels are always a great nonsense. So where was the psychedelia? Probably in the two chords of Transfiguration, the monumental opening track; or more simply in the spirit of the work, rather than in effects meant to evoke other worlds. So here it is: psychedelic with a white-knuckle grip, finally the punk rockers are taking acid. The influence of the most rebellious punk is indeed clearly felt, especially in the rhythm of drummer Mark Pickerel, and in the buzzing guitar of Gary Lee Conner one can distinguish the forefathers mentioned above. If anything said so far holds any value, in Back Together and Straight Out to Any Place, and in the slashes of In the Forest, one can feel the sonic urgency typical of punk first and grunge later, and indeed this album - and perhaps the Screaming? - could be considered among the ferrymen from one shore to the other. In the intro of Don't Look Down one senses the foreboding of that Grey Diamond Desert that will come, but it is just an illusion, as we are suddenly tossed around like in a washing machine between solos and hammering drums, only to return as if nothing happened.
Still uncertain about the direction to take, the Screaming appear here - much like in the previous "Clairvoyance" - rather unripe. In their first album for SST, converging are the aspirations and visions of a band outside the norms, between in pectore psychedelia and punk remains, with the fortune of having an incredibly singular voice - which was a peculiarity of all grunge bands. An album from another time, in the necessary maturation process every band should undergo and that unfortunately today no one can afford. Within a year, the five would have found their path, never fully forgetting these solid roots.
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