Album Reviews: Erik Larson, Red Lines & Everything Breaks
Erik Larson has put out no fewer than four full-lengths in the last 10 months, plus one EP. Last September, the Richmond, Virginia, solo artist and Southern heavy maestro offered up Favorite Iron, Siste Latter and the Measwe EP (reviews here) with no fanfare or real leadup — first they weren’t there and then they were. Red Lines, his latest work, and Everything Breaks, which was released earlier this year, follow a roughly similar pattern, though there was an announcement first. As ever for the multi-instrumentalist/vocalist — whose many-tiered pedigree includes drumming for the likes of Avail, Axehandle, Hail!Hornet, Backwoods Payback and currently Thunderchief and Omen Stones, playing guitar in the soon-to-play-a-reunion-gig Alabama Thunderpussy, as well as The Mighty Nimbus, Birds of Prey, The Might Could, and a slew of others — the records he puts out under his own name are songwriting catalogs, and there’s little ego in them needing to be fed by hype. Red Lines, which runs nine songs/45 minutes, and Everything Breaks, nine songs/50 minutes, both follow and break patterns as Larson‘s seventh and eighth long-players (that counts Siste Latter as a full album), working in established songwriting modes while branching out in terms of structure and dynamic.
As regards bands, Larson could easily be one by himself and has on multiple prior occasions, so it’s noteworthy that part of the point of these two latest offerings is partnerships. In the case of Red Lines, it’s with “Minnesota Pete” Campbell (Pentagram, Vulgaari, Place of Skulls, The Mighty Nimbus, etc.), who drums and produces while Larson handles guitar, bass and vocals. The two players, obviously familiar with each other from past collaborations, work with unquestionable fluidity across cuts like the sneering groover “Walk Around Blade,” the hi-hat-up-front “Spilling Over” and the if-grunge-had-happened-in-Virginia “Strike the Never” and “Dangerously,” quieter-strummed-at-the-start-but-wait-for-it “Halo” and the minute-long, ends-with-howls-and-crashes punker “The Jeff Song” with lyrics by Erik‘s son, Stig Larson.
Sandwiched between two six-and-a-half-minute tracks — “Halo” is the in opener “Nomen est Omen” and the finale “Yeah, Well Fuck You Too,” Red Lines unfolds as a masterclass in Southern heavy rock and roll and one would expect no less. Acoustic guitar is woven throughout, and centerpiece “Dangerously” is strummed in clean electric tones and leads into “You’re Welcome,” which likewise follows a moderated path in comparison to earlier bruisers like “Strike the Never” and “Spilling Over,” as well as the aforementioned “Nomen est Omen,” which launches the album with one of its most vital grooves as it snakes through its second half, but that dynamic is part of the point, as well as the pairing-up of friends to make a record.
Between those two factors and the crashes that punctuate “Yea, Well Fuck You Too” before the next forward run takes off, it becomes apparent just how smoothly Larson and Campbell work together. In listening to Red Lines, it’s easy to imagine them touring as a duo — or trio with a bassist, if they wanted — but whatever comes of their chemistry on record or on stage, in this incarnation or another, as much as it’s drawn from the underlying foundation of Larson‘s songwriting, the spirit and vitality of the material on Red Lines is clearly born from the strength of that partnership. And that theme even more defines Everything Breaks, which was titled in honor of drums themselves — constantly breaking — and finds Larson embracing what seems like a certain logistical nightmare of recording each of the nine inclusions with a different drummer.
For reference, the tracklisting:
1. Eon Eater (w/ Alex Tomlin of Battlemaster)
2. Truncheon (w/ Lance Koehler, who also co-produced)
3. Never Eva Eva (w/ Chris DeHaven of Book of Wyrms)
4. A Drop In The Bucket (w/ Mark Miley, engineer for ATP, Gwar, many others)
5. Can’t Be Bought (w/ Tim Barry of Avail)
6. Bested (w/ Bryan Cox of ATP)
7. ARRESSS (w/ Ryan Parrish of Darkest Hour, Iron Reagan, etc.)
8. Krusher (w/ Dave Witte of Municipal Waste, etc.)
9. Ripoff (w/ Jordan Faett of Paper Trail)
Not a minor undertaking, and from the catchy urgency of opener “Eon Eater” into “Truncheon” — which seems to reference Aerosmith‘s “Ragdoll” in its verse either consciously or not — through “Never Eva Eva” and into the seven-minute “A Drop in the Bucket,” the shifts in rhythmic persona put Larson perhaps inadvertently in the center as the unifying factor. In comparison to Red Lines, Everything Breaks is more outwardly heavy on average — that is, where the middle of the later release leaves behind some of its initial distorted revelry — the closest Everything Breaks comes to following suit is in its own centerpiece, “Can’t Be Bought.”
But even those milder, clean-sung verses (maybe with Barry on backing vocals?) give way to louder rolling hooks and a layered in lead line that’s got me wondering if there’s actually organ on it or if I’m just hearing things. “Bested” and “ARRESS,” which follow, are crushers, and “Krusher” — because go figure — is more of a straight-up heavy rock groove, and while closer “Ripoff” runs eight minutes around a riff that may or may not be copped from ZZ Top and if it is, then fair enough for the nod it becomes in the hands of Larson and Faett. It’s the longest track across these two outings, and riding that riff as it does it could easily go longer.
It has to be mentioned that the drummers with whom Larson works on Everything Breaks are at least reasonably local, and the record is as much a celebration of Richmond’s creative sprawl and vibrant underground history — of which Larson, it also bears mentioning, is part — as it is of its own craft or anything else. I don’t know how long it was in the making, but if on some level Everything Breaks — a title I read both as complaint and boast about drumming — is to serve as Larson‘s hometown homage, then the grit of his delivery throughout feeds into that.
Maybe these two releases are just a case of Larson wanting to make records with people he knows, but after working almost entirely on his own in Siste Latter and Favorite Iron — Faett and Buddy Bryant drummed on Measwe — to have Red Lines and Everything Breaks so pointedly move in the opposite direction feels like a purposeful choice. One more way in which the seemingly impossible logic of never quite knowing where Larson will end up next but consistently being able to rely on the quality of his work comes to fruition. Or two ways, I suppose.
