Book of Secrits – The Flavor That Kills (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

It is fair to say that this latest album from The Flavor That Kills contains more than a fair slice of the sort of garage rock sound that the likes of The Stooges or The MC5 used to effortlessly fire off. But what takes things beyond the realms of mere nostalgia or pastiche, plunder or the retreading of past glories, is all the other sounds and scenes that the band filters into their sound.

In American Dream, especially as the song cycles and spirals towards its conclusion, sixties psychedelia is more than evident, Not of the World bristles with the sort of sound found where conscious soul met bluesy rock ‘n’ roll, Richard is gnarly punk from the time before punk and Sow is an intense take on rhythm and blues.

And whilst many of the band’s reference points come from a generation or two back, Book of Secrits (sic) is the sound of a band focussed on where they are going rather than where their music has been. And anyway, in the cyclical world of music, maybe they are just the prescient forerunners of the next big thing, rather than unfashionably behind the times, instead setting the zeitgeist as the wheel turns full circle. Maybe this is the start of a whole new musical movement.

I hope so. I mean, wouldn’t that be something, not to mention much needed given the state of popular music today.