Published on Feb 18, 2002
I’ll make no bones about it right here in the beginning of this
review: Boulder is a band who confuses me.
On the surface, they seem to be your average stoner rock band –
especially when on the cover of their latest release
Ravage And Savage they look like they’re connected to a bong
using tubing you’d find at your local muffler shop. Yet listening
to the music on this disc – combining the new disc with their first
full-length offering
The Rage Of It All – shows a group which is one part Queens
Of The Stone Age, one part Napalm Death and one part Helmet. The
end result is a bit messy, but isn’t disastrous like I might have
imagined when I heard the first notes.
Boulder further confuses me by leaving out any information about
the band in their liner notes – never mind the fact I’ve misplaced
the bio sheet I was sent with the disc. Note to the group: If you
want to be more well-known outside of Cleveland, how’s about
telling us something about the group, like who’s in it, huh?
Boulder seems to plow through songs like “Funeral Day,” “Ravage
And Savage” and “Two Track Mind” like a semi-trailer driving
through bubble wrap, though the band’s approach is a little
sloppier just in the tightness (or lack thereof) of the group. It
also would have been nice had there been actual vocals, not just
screams on top of the sonic soup. (That said, if you listen to this
disc with headphones, the vocals come out a little clearer.)
Here, then, is the curious thing about this disc. Had the album
ended simply with
Ravage And Savage, things would have probably been a little
better. I understand the desire of Boulder to offer listeners a
slice of the band’s history by including
The Rage Of It All, but in all honesty, including the nine
tracks of this album (as well as “Scream Of The Iron Messiah” from
a split 45) isn’t a benefit for the band. The only negative,
though, is that sitting through 67 minutes’ worth of muddied
musical focus gets to be a bit taxing. Smaller doses would possibly
have helped; I would have been happy to call
Ravage And Savage worthwhile of your entertainment dollar on
its own, warts and all.
It’s the paradoxical Sword of Damocles that hung over Boulder’s
head with this two-fer – and while there is enough on
Ravage And Savage‘s 10 tracks that make me curious to hear
the group’s upcoming outing (due a little later in 2002), taking
this whole disc in one sitting is a bit too much.