Clutch: Pure Rock Fury

Clutch: Pure Rock Fury

2001

Atlantic Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. American Sleep  2. Pure Rock Fury  3. Open Up the Border  4. Careful with That Mic...  5. Red Horse Rainbow  6. The Great Outdoors!  7. Smoke Banshee  8. Frankenstein  9. Sinkemlow  10. Immortal  11. Brazenhead  12. Drink to the Dead  13. Spacegrass (live)



 Damn, this came out in 2001? I had this on cassette...Was I really still buying cassettes as recently as 2001? Wait,  2001 was, like,  12 years ago...That's not exactly recent, is it? Oh no!!!

I'M AN OLD MAN NOW!!!!!

Actually, I've come to that same conclusion about a hundred times on this blog, now, so screw it...(eats handful of old man candy...)



I don't have the cassette anymore...I have a nifty CD copy with a big "Promotional Use Only" blurb that says that I have to return it upon request...

Yea, right...I'd like to see you pry it from out of my cold dead hands!!!

If I didn't know better, I don't think I would have pegged this as a 2001 album...For a heavy metal recording that was released balls-deep in the Nu-Metal explosion, it walks away remarkably unscathed...It could be because Clutch's connection to "metal" was pretty tenuous at this point...By this point they more closely resemble Black Sabbath or ZZ Top than any back-wards baseball-cap wearing seven-stringer that was whining about his daddy or whatever...Now that I think about it "Careful With That Mic..." is rap-rock...I guess it could be viewed as an olive branch to the younger crowd, although I've always gotten a parody vibe from it...

I remember being slightly puzzled by it when it came out...In my mind this album has always seemed like a turning point in the Clutch discography...They seem to drop a lot of the high-concepts from their previous albums, the lyrics seem slightly less dense (even on "Careful With That Mic..." which is probably their most verbose song...) and there would never really be the WTF? moments(like "Spacegrass," "Tight Like That"  or "Gnome Enthusiast")  ever again...I guess what I'm trying to say is, this is where Clutch dropped all the nonsense and got down to the serious business of rocking...Although, I for one,  miss all the nonsense...

Still, it's all undeniably ass-kicking..."American Sleep" and the title track just punch you in the dang mouth right out of the gate, and I'm also a big, fat fan of "Immortal," which is just as heavy as bricks...

It's actually a partial cover of Moutain's "Baby, I'm Down"....

Who, in turn covered "Immortal"... 

...and the circle of rock is complete...

I also remember thinking at the time, what an odd choice it was to close the album with a live version of "Spacegrass." For one, it points out that there wasn't anything as great as "Spacegrass" on the album, and as much as I like "Drink to the Dead," it felt like a cover-up for "Pure Rock Fury's" lack of a momentous closer...But now I really like its inclusion...It reminds me of the old classic rock and metal albums you used to get where there was a random live version of "Sweet Leaf" or something tacked on at the end...

 I also think it made people aware of how good a live act Clutch was...Nowadays it's kind of taken for granted, but back then I don't think many people (outside of those who had been lucky enough to see the band firsthand) were hip to Clutch legendary live shows...

 ...although, it does kind of piss me off when they fade out what sounds like is going to be a killer live version of "Escape From the Prison Planet."

All in all, I like this album, while I don't think it's as innovative or as revelatory as what came before, it reassured me that Clutch would always be there, solid as a rock, unmoved by fickle trends...Forever devoted to the pursuit of real, pure rock...God bless 'em for that...

Unless of course they put out a polka album next week...

Let's Check out"Pure Polka Fury" by Clutch...Enjoy...