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Review & Full Album Stream: Droids Attack, Sci-Fi or Die

droids attack sci-fi or die

[NOTE: Click play above to stream the entirety of Droids Attack’s Sci-Fi or Die. Album is out Feb. 26.]

Wisconsin trio Droids Attack release their fourth full-length, Sci-Fi or Die, some six years after their third, and that interim has produced several noteworthy changes in the band. Foremost, it’s a different lineup, founding guitarist/vocalist Brad Van and drummer Tony Brungraber having parted ways with Nate Bush and brought in Darwin Sampson in a bassist/vocalist role since the release of 2010’s Must Destroy (review here). That change is significant, but even more so is the sonic turn the group have made. Even as they proclaim “death to false stoner thrash!” on the hidden title-track, they do so over a spacious progressive metal riff, and while Must Destroy and its two predecessors, 2007’s Fatal/Error and 2004’s All Your Chicks are Belong to Us, lacked nothing in songwriting or charm, the three-piece execute Sci-Fi or Die‘s 10-tracks/50-minutes with a surge in professionalism of sound that’s one of the record’s most striking impressions.

That doesn’t mean it’s all frowny-face, no-fun, takes-itself-way-too-seriously riffing, but even as VanBrungraber and Sampson twist around the grooves of “Clawhammer Suicide” on a course that feels narrative in its themes from opener “Die Glocke” to closer “Enoch,” they keep a mindful balance between performance and performance of performance. Guest keys from Tim Thompson bolster tracks like “New Plague” and “Mashenomak,” among others, while the subsequent “Mashemonak Strikes Again” revives the titular fish monster and even goes so far as to feature a sax solo, contributed by Bryan Elliot. All of this, plus copious layering of guitar, a deep mix from engineer Mark Whitcomb at DNA Studios and a pervasive momentum built as the album makes its way forward, comes together to make Sci-Fi or Die not only live up to its stakes, but to do so as Droids Attack‘s most expansive and accomplished work yet.

Primarily, it is a record that sounds worked on, constructed. And it is. Van and company began the writing process not long after Must Destroy and through the lineup change have been steadily chipping away at Sci-Fi or Die since. As such, even a sub-two-minute instrumental like “The Maze” brims with purpose. Guitars and keys build the way into “Die Glocke” as a quick intro to the riff onslaught that will soon ensue as that song builds tension and moves into the full-motor “New Plague,” granted spaciousness through echoes in the vocals, but keeping tight around turns and changes and pushing through toward call and response from Van and SampsonVan and himself, and the adrenaline-soaked largesse on which the track closes. As a pair, “Die Glocke” and “New Plague” thrust the listener inward for Sci-Fi or Die, offering a bit of exposition of how this world works — what the rules are — and with a slightly slower ion thrust, “Clawhammer Suicide” maximizes groove without sacrificing the drive Droids Attack have thus far established.

droids attack

Brungraber‘s drums swing behind the guitar and bass, lending a classic heavy rock feel, but the punk-via-Motörhead style of riffing allows for no letup. “Clawhammer Suicide” is cleaner than the name might imply, and the chunkier “Brahma Astra” ultimately follows suit, melding a forward motion early to an intense chorus and a more open-sounding back half that lets the leads trip out over a steady rhythm in the guitar, bass and drums. Droids Attack rarely go for hypnosis, but they get there as “Brahma Astra” answers “Clawhammer Suicide” with a bigger finish of its own, leading to the chugging start of “Mashenomak,” the longest inclusion at 8:28, the album’s most satisfying vocal melody and — indeed — a lyric about a fish monster. Just in case you were worried they were taking themselves too seriously with all that stuff about multi-tracked guitar, accomplishment and professionalism.

Actually, “Mashenomak” provides a fitting summary of so much of what works throughout Sci-Fi or Die precisely because it has all of those things working for it — the underlying sense of the absurd, the professionalism and so on. Built to a swinging but linear charge, it casts off some of the thrashier elements in favor of a thicker take, leaving “Mashenomak Strikes Again” to carry the faster boogie, and the aforementioned sax solo, across to the audience. If it seems bold that Droids Attack might immediately include a sequel to a song that just finished, you probably haven’t been paying attention. “Mashenomak Strikes Again” bridges from the more out-there finish of the cut before it into more intense riffing with a deceptively smooth transition, and “The Maze” picks up that momentum and runs with it for a brief but progressive instrumental crux, leading to the strut of “Rebirth,” Van‘s vocals gruff in the verse and cutting through a vanguard of fuzz to set up one of the album’s more satisfying hooks, a tempest of riff never actually out of control in its churn.

The shift into the penultimate “The Annunaki” is nearly seamless, one beat ending the one song and the next starting the next, adding to the feel that, one way or another, there’s a story being told that unites this material. Brungraber breaks out the cowbell late in the proceedings, but even before that, “The Annunaki” finds Droids Attack right in their element trouncing the line between heavy rock and metal, ending with a guitar solo while also tying back to to the chorus instrumentally in a way that reinforces the songwriting on display all along. A direct bleed brings “Enoch” as a final chapter in the album, continuing the cowbell but hitting into a classic heavy rock hook before the solo and last-chance-party-time groove provide Sci-Fi or Die a victory lap for clearly having made the right choice between the two. There is that hidden track, which might be the best gag of all, but in both its serious moments and in its laughers, Droids Attack‘s fourth outing bleeds sincerity front to back, in its approach, in its performances and in the command the band clearly takes and holds over their sound. Five years in the making and worth every second of that wait, it’s a welcome return and then some.

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4 Responses to “Review & Full Album Stream: Droids Attack, Sci-Fi or Die

  1. Matt S says:

    YES! Love this band. Really hope they put some touring behind this one, would love to see them in the PNW…

  2. Aron says:

    So glad to see the support here for these guys, they deserve it!

  3. Doug says:

    Can’t wait for the album to drop. I’m lucky to live Iin Madison and will be attending their album release party at The High Noon Saloon March 10.

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