Album Premiere: Thunderbird Lodge – The Flavor That Kills (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Rock music is not generally known for having much to say, at least little in the way of the poignant and the profound. It is also often not the most adventurous region of the musical spectrum, sonically speaking, the genre having found a pretty solid form and footing decades ago. But there are still bands willing to push the genres, and therefore their own boundaries, happy to draw on all manner of other sounds and scenes and styles, and then use that sonic vehicle to make music that gives us cause to think. The Flavor That Kills is just such a band, and Thunderbird Lodge is their latest album.

The concept album might be a bit looked down on in the modern age, but Thunderbird Lodge is just that. Not only that, but also a continuation of the stories and ideas that ran through their debut album Book of Secrits (and yes, spellchecker, it is meant to be spelled that way.) But if such a term conjures images of keyboard players dressed as Wizards and thoughts of drum solos that seem to take months to resolve, here, nothing could be further from the truth.

And if rock and roll might be the launch point for Thunderbird Lodge, you very quickly realize that this is a band happy to wander the musical landscape and plunder it for all manner of sonic shiny things that catch their eye. (Or should that be ear?) If “Skinwalkers,” which kicks things off, errs on the side of Zappa-esque psychedelic groove rock, “Swimming in a Paradox” is positively funky… the sound of Parliament Funkadelic playing to a more rock and roll audience, perhaps.

“Spin,” a recent single, seems to run on an ominous sense of brooding dread; heavy basslines and chugging rhythm guitars can do that, but even these straightforward deliveries are warped into more adventurous, killer sonic flavors. And then there is “Mirror”, sitting somewhere between ritual chant, spoken word, drifting yet heavy ambiance (a clever contradiction), arabesque guitar lines, and anthemic highs. If H. P. Lovecraft were alive today and had pursued a career in rock and roll rather than picking up the pen, such a song might be the result.

Between all of this, we find soul moves and pop accessibility, indie cool and out there ornateness, and all the rest…

But more than just adventurous music, this is music with a message, well, many messages, but they are hidden under, and in and below and beyond a futuristic tale. But sci-fi has always been the perfect way to show us the failings of our own world and suggest where we might be heading.

Without giving the game away, we follow a cyborg through other dimensions, ones where skinwalkers and aliens, monsters and metaphors, and AI run rampant. And as we do, the lyrics explore ideas of manipulation by higher forces, the cyclical nature of civilization, long-lost cultural memories, secret histories, chaos, and control. Heavy stuff, perhaps, but put to the grooviest of music.

If you think that rock music has become stale, The Flavor That Kills is for you. If modern music seems to have little to say beyond shallow romance and forgettable sentiment, The Flavor That Kills is for you. If you want music that entertains and informs, makes you feel and yet also makes you think, is adventurous and genre-hopping, evokes debate and starts mosh pits, has more questions than answers, and makes you look at the world differently…well, you know.