Emanuel

Black Earth Tiger

[3.5/5]

At their best, Emanuel are pure, unfiltered rock potency. On their sadly inconsistent 2005 debut Soundtrack To A Headrush, too-conventional defaults, an uncomfortable pseudo-ballad and the occasional brainless lyric prevented them from realizing that kind of dominance. Those missteps, not to mention the finger-lickin’ Southern riffage that pervaded their debut, are mostly out on album two, replaced with a road-tested toughness that adds legitimate ferocity to dark, bottom-heavy rippers like “Cottonmouth” and the monstrous, scathing “Scenotaph.” Spots like the angular, slicing “Anathamatics” still opt for hollow shout-along choruses when they’d be better served by cranking the distortion and blowing the roof off the dump, but Emanuel and producer Terry Date (Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones) keep things tight, rollicking and unmuddled enough to sell it. Progress might not come deep-fried, but damn, it’s tasty. (VAGRANT) Tristan Staddon