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It may sound strange to say today, but there was a time when boundaries in the rock field, particularly in the more or less hard one, contamination between genres was an eventuality poorly digested if not experienced as a disgrace for those who attempted to put it into practice.
This was the rule among the (so-called) subgenres within the same macro-category.
Midway through the penultimate decade of the last century and the early years of the one that would close the millennium, these compartmentalized separations undergo an unstoppable process of disintegration.
An unexpected, perhaps unanticipated, salvific opening towards parallel worlds contiguous but never concretely frequented: the consequence was a genuine explosion both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view.
Not that there hadn't been attempts at blending before, but in that phase, there was a real implo-explosion: largely aided and propelled by the media themselves - at the time, some niche magazines and little more - in the sector.
Contemporary rock/metal, as it was understood until then, changes form taking on the semblance of something perhaps not always new, but certainly different;
the result of mixing, simply, between different minds.
In a short time, the (infamous) crossover proliferates widely: inside which one could really find so much and more.
This also meant the advent of many rascals and various intruders, authors of memorable abominations.
But it couldn't be otherwise: it's part of the very nature of man.
All this pedantic preamble to say that among the thousand-and-one projects, ensembles, groups, outfits, and acronyms that came out of that bubbling cauldron there's (been) this fine New Jersey quintet, which has on its back only this studio album from 1992 and a few other scraps.
Among my worn-out claws, I jealously guard the now-yellowed cassette tape version (original, ça va sans dire): an authentic relic, next to which the ampoule containing the blood of San Gennaro is fresh water.
"Sweet Lizard Illtet" sees the light several months before another much more well-known and, in some ways, rightly idolized eponymous debut; that of the Rage Against the Machine of Tom Morello. With which the points of contact are, both conceptually and stylistically, anything but negligible.
Compared to the Los Angeles quartet, Illtet throws it [much] less into politics, adopting stylistically a much more expansive and layered crossover formula: perhaps less immediate and striking but certainly not less intriguing.
A lot (really a lot) of expressive freedom and a decidedly remarkable compositional register far above many of their contemporaries.
A total rock sound dense, fluid, with a nice ultra-slapped bass as was used at the time, intertwined with powerful injections of funk, rap, and electro-dub: moreover, both the recording and production are an absolute chicness since it was released by a true giant like WarnerBros.
Since I've already bored you enough, here's the Bandcamp link where the album is today entirely free to download, just so you can personally get an idea of how big it hits.
As usual.
Tracklist and Videos
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