Clutch: Blast Tyrant

Clutch: Blast Tyrant's Atlas of the Invisible World Including Illustrations of Strange Beasts And Phantoms.

2004

DRT Entertainment

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Mercury  2. Profits of Doom  3. The Mob Goes Wild  4. Cypress Grove  5. Promoter (of Earthbound Causes)  6. The Regulator  7. Worm Drink  8. Army of Bono  9. Spleen Merchant  10. (In the Wake of) The Swollen Goat  11. Weathermaker  12. Subtle Hustle  13. Ghost  14. (Notes from the Trial of) La Curandera  15. WYSIWYG




Wow, that's an ugly album cover...It's so shabbily done that it almost circles back around to "charming" for me...I also couldn't believe my eyes when I first opened it and there she was...

It's Sage from X-Men!! Yes!!!

Yea, that's right, I own the X-Men encyclopedia...And I can explain to you the difference between Psylocke and Revanche/Kwannon. So eat it...



The reissue cover looks a little classier...

...although I wonder if it wouldn't look cooler on a black background and maybe make the octopus-goblin-king thing a metallic color...Maybe a silver or gold...

The music however is a whole 'nother story...I love "Blast Tyrant"! Back in 2004, for some reason I was under the impression that after "Pure Rock Fury," Clutch was a band that peaked early with their 2nd and 3rd albums. When I got around to picking it up, and played it for the first time I couldn't have been happier...

(Although its elevated stature in my mind may come from the fact that on that same trip to the record store I purchased a copy of "Viking" by Lars Frederiksen & The Bastards..



Yeesh! What a shitty record...It didn't take long for that album to find its final destination at the used record shop, on the other hand, Clutch's "Blast Tyrant" sounded so sweet....)

We're now in the period where Clutch's southern rock/blues influences come to the forefront...If it wasn't for their ironic lyrical bent and the political/sociological commentary, it wouldn't be too hard to imagine hot-rodding rockers like "Cypress Grove,""Spleen Merchant"  or "Subtle Hustle" on the radio next to Foghat...In reality, the only Clutch song I've ever heard on the radio was "The Mob Goes Wild," but that probably has less to do with the songs strength (although it is a hell of a song!) and more to do with Ryan Dunn's video...

...since the whole Viva La Bam thing was in full swing at the time...

 "The The Regulator" and "Ghost" also mark the first appearances of acoustic guitar on Clutch songs, and you'll want to hoist that lighter high on these sensitive Bon Jovi-esque power ballads...

...Nah, I'm just kidding...There's no chance of the mushy stuff here..."The Regulator" is just old-fashioned acoustic blues and in "Ghost" its used for the sake of dynamics...There's a lot of drama in the moment where that mournful acoustic guitar line comes back in after the rocking chorus...Doesn't slow the album down at all...

 "Blast Tyrant" is just an all-round perfect hard rock album, full of the kind of dinosaur riffs and fist-pumping songs you just don't find much anymore. I'd probably rank this in third place in my list of favorite Clutch albums, right below the self-titled album and "The Elephant Riders" and a half-inch above "Jam Room"...Which is a good place to be...

So let's check out "Spleen Merchant" by Clutch...