If there's one thing than sBach proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, it's that Hella guitarist Spencer Seim can play the hell out of the drums. This isn't to dismiss his work behind the skins with the Advantage, but to simply point out that Seim spends the majority of this album banging away at his kit at a frenetic and maddening pace. If he can find the space squeeze in another handful of bass drum kicks, or rattle off more snare and cymbal notes, he does it, and then throws in a few more at no extra charge. Seim's percussive generosity wears out its welcome pretty damn quick, which is endemic of this one man group's debut as a whole. While sBach is now a full-fledged band, everything on this album was performed by Seim-- all the frisky fretwork, all the eight-bit power-upsmanship, and all the aforementioned Animal-esque thrashing. It's all done in the service of a record that, despite its relentless attempts to stand out and grab your attention, comes off as an underwhelming, exhausting, and (ironically) anonymous effort.
It's only fitting, then, that Seim didn't bother to name the record's 13 tracks-- if you want to make reference to a tune you like, you'll have to make like you're ordering Chinese take-out. And instead of describing the album's lead-off bait-and-switch with easy-to-use song titles, I have to write the following: The first 30 or so seconds of the album's first track are actually from the start of Track 8. So instead of getting the devil-horned payoff promised by the intro's gradual cymbal-laden crescendo, Track 1 takes a sharp left and turns into a guitar plucking exhibition backed with obnoxious high-pitched ringing tones. Eventually, Track 8 comes along and gives listeners the promised payoff, but its big beat and fuzzed-out tones are undercut by Seim's need to make like the Yngwie Malmsteen of drums at every opportunity. (Track 4's pro-forma post-rock lien is a more successful variation on this theme.)
Thankfully, Seim doesn't take the same can't-drive-55 approach when it comes to the other instrumentation-- if he mangled his guitar with the same ferocity that he uses on the drums, this record would be wholly unbearable. Instead, he shows relative restraint when, for example, sprinkling Track 2 with a fair helping of MIDI sounds, or leavening the squealing guitar in Track 3 with some small helpings of organ. Once in a while, Seim finds a happy middle ground for his inventiveness and his virtuosity to thrive-- Track 5's transition from loping squelches to triumphant victory march would be the perfect soundtrack for a Legend of Zelda speed run, and the trickling synths draped across Track 6 discreetly disguise Seim's bass-pedal orgy. But for those minor victories, there are plenty crash-and-burn moments like the album's first song, or Track 10, where extra lives and Koopas run full-bore into a severely thorough soundcheck. These sorts of song-length missteps, coupled with the little stylistic hiccups that frequently crop up, undercut any sort of momentum sBach tries to maintain, and turns this one-man labor of love into a chore for the listener.
