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Jack & The Bearded Fishermen

Places To Hide

Written by: PP on 31/05/2011 02:49:27

It's a pleasure seeing young, small bands take input from criticism and use it constructively to improve on their future efforts. That's precisely what Besancon, France based Jack & The Bearded Fishermen have done on their sophomore album "Places To Hide", which sees them better in pretty much every aspect of their sound and then some.

Whereas their debut "Hunting Isn't Easy...When Dogs Become Wolves" was a progressively oriented, noisy sludgefest of stoner rock, rather inaccessible to the listener, the sophomore album, like its shorter title, simplifies their sound to a great extent. The songs are much shorter and to the point, lingering around the four-minute mark where they used to surpass five minutes each time. That's one reason why they feel more effective and impactful. Another one is the band's subtle evolution from sludgy post-metal/stoner metal into a more rock-based outfit. In practice, they've added a real good, solid underlying melody line to each track, which in the past drowned underneath unnecessary progression and lengthy instrumental wankery.

The stoner / noise rock element is still strongly audible in their sound, but an early 90s rock vibe has sneaked in from the backdoor, and it's for the better. They have included just enough pop to make their noisy/stoner arrangements stick out in a way they just didn't in the past. That said, they still explore a breadth of different genres and influences, which makes them difficult to compare to any particular artist as such, but yet a single, coherent style is audible in the mix, suggesting that Jack & co are close to finding their own identity. If they keep evolving like this, their next album might just see them appealing for more than just the niché (and, I suppose, French) audience on the European market.

Download: Invisible Song, Roam Until The End
For the fans of: Kyuss, Torche, fuzzy alternative rock
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 19.03.2011
Self-Released