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Sunday Metal Shop - Clutch

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John Cooper's lucky pig's picture
October 18, 2015 at 6:20pm
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Sunday Metal Shop checks in from Germantown, Maryland to bring you the genre-defying sound of Clutch. Four high school friends – Tim Sult, Dan Maines, Jean-Paul Gaster and Neil Fallon – formed the band in 1991 and released their first EP “Pitchfork” that same year. That release presented Clutch to the world as a metal band and they have been both rejecting and reinforcing that image ever since.

Relentless in their touring and recording, Clutch has established themselves as the most consistent and one of the best metal/hard rock acts of the past 25 years. Over that time they’ve released 11 albums, a handful of live records and performed thousands upon thousands of shows. They’ve been signed to major labels but have never had breakthrough, mainstream success.

Perhaps owing to the lack of massive success, Clutch has been free to continually reinvent themselves from album to album. While their sound is ever in flux there are constants within the band. Forged from playing hundreds of tour dates a year, Clutch is as tight a rock band as there is in 2015. True masters of their craft, the band is propelled by the sonically punishing rhythm section of Dan Maines on bass and Jean-Paul Gaster on drums.  Maines brings an almost funk sensibility and Gaster is rooted in a heavy jazz/swing sound.  On top of that foundation floats the understated guitar of Tim Sult while Neil Fallon’s lyrics and vocals alternate between revivalist preacher and paranoid conspiracy theorist.

Clutch has evolved from an early 90s alt-metal sound to one that defies easy explanation. Fittingly, the lyrics are no easier to categorize. Fallon is a masterful raconteur whose subject matter knows no bounds. On a single album he covered topics ranging from the Civil War, centerfold models, the importance of being a good member of the community, holiday meals and the springtime mating rituals of woodland creatures. And that’s without getting into the weird songs on the album.

If you have not caught this band live you should try to do so. They play frequent shows in small clubs including House of Blues in Cleveland, the Newport in Columbus and Bogart’s in Cincinnati. Tickets are generally cheap and you get more than your money’s worth. Not in the sense of a stage show, as their theatrics amount to not much more than some colored lights, but rather in some of the finest musicianship that live rock has to offer nowadays. They are playing in Cleveland and Cincinnati on December 30 and 31 http://pro-rock.com/

Clutch released their 11th studio album, “Psychic Warfare”, on October 13. Here is the first single of the album, “X-Ray Visions”:

“The Mob Goes Wild” off the 2004 album “Blast Tyrant”:

“A Shogun Named Marcus” off the 1993 album “Transnational Speedway League”:

“Burning Beard” off the 2005 album “Robot Hive/Exodus”:

 

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