Opening song “The Companions” focuses on the ever-expanding vocal range of guitarist Nils Frykdahl. Violinist Carla Kihlstedt and a backing horn harmonize with Frykdahl around the midpoint of the ten-minute piece, building tension before a crescendo is reached with dirty guitars and a full-blown rhythmic change. Frykdahl and a glockenspiel then revisit the inaugural melody as an epilogue.
The album’s second track, “Helpless Corpses Enactment,” quickly follows with the band’s idiosyncratic sound of quirky, dissonant heaviness full of overlapped rhythms and vocals that border on death metal. Let it be known, however, that Sleepytime Gorilla Museum has done more than rehash its wildly original style. In Glorious Times incorporates more of the band’s homemade instruments—the Percussion Guitar, the Pedal-Action Wiggler, and the Electric Pancreas for example—than ever before. Certain moments border on the operatic.
The urgency in Frykdahl’s vocals on “Puppet Show” conjure images of a totalitarian figure rallying troops with a jarring, Broadway-meets-doom-metal backdrop; a pseudo-choir backs him on “The Salt Crown.” Even one unappealing expansion of vocals on “Formicary” is later redeemed with a stellar low-end groove and alternating squeals from the guitar.
If you’re unfamiliar with the neck-breaking work of the Museum, consider this as good a place to start as any. In Glorious Times comes highly recommended for fans of dramatic, forward-thinking rock.
– Scott Morrow
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (The End Records)