Red Fang: Whales and Leeches (2013)

Good, Dirty Rock Music

I like to DVR Craig Ferguson’s bizarre self-parody of a late night TV show and watch it the next morning. Because of the timing of late night TV, this usually entails skipping through some garbage music on Letterman. This morning, it didn’t. It was Red Fang playing “Blood Like Cream,” and it was awesome. I’ve been sitting on this promo for a while, listening off and on, but seeing these guys perform convinced me that I need to talk about it. Seeing a Relapse artist on Letterman isn’t something that happens on a regular basis.

Whales and Leeches is good. It’s real good. But the only way I can describe it is going to do it a disservice, and it’s going to make me a broken record.

They kind of sound--just a bit--like Mastodon.


Yeah, I’ve said that a lot over the years, about a lot of bands. Especially Relapse bands. Typically what I mean is that they sound like Remission, and that will endear them to metalheads. But Red Fang is different. Their stoner rock/metal resembles the catchy, accessible side of Mastodon, without all the flashy prog excess. Plus, guest spot by Mike Scheidt, whose vocals I’m learning to appreciate more each day.

There are probably a lot of you ignoring these guys, for whatever reason. There’s some kind of Internet backlash against them, I gather. I ignored them at first because they came around at the same time as another band often compared to Mastodon, Black Tusk, and I thought—well, not only was I fed up with Mastodon clones at the time, but their names were suspiciously similar.

Well, if you are, it’s time to stop ignoring them. This is good, dirty rock music for people who like good, dirty rock music.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars