Pacmanthemovie 2: Eat Lives

Pacmanthemovie

Pacmanthemovie is quickly becoming one of my favourite bands to follow in the footsteps of such legendary acts like The Locust. The band chaotically rips through eleven songs in just under twenty minutes, packing in as many guitar details, rhythm changes, shrill screams, and absurd lyrics as they possibly can. Upon first listen, it sounds like they're just spazzing out, creating a flury of noise. Upon deeper inspection though, you'll find that just about every song has that special something that makes them stand out from not only each other, but the rest of their contemporaries. The short song lengths work wonders for the band, only having to create one or two 'magical' moments to make for a fantastic track. Before you know it, the album is over, and you can't help but spin it again.

Folly D is the best of the best thanks to the absolutely zany vocal performances. There's quite a vulgar and confrontational set of lines first performed in a desperate, poorly fried manner, only to be repeated in this ridiculously comical, low guttural belch. It's hilarious, fun, and super memorable. The rapid fire, machine gun yelps at the very end are also absolutely insane. As for the guitar, there are a ton of great moments. I love the whammied rising chaos towards the end of Hellzzz Kitchen. The ring-modulated noise shots that fill the space between heavy chugs in the breakdown of Insomnia are awesome. The colourfully titled Horse Dick Fiasco has a really cool riff that makes great use of delay effects. And for my last example, let's highlight midway through the final track, The Last Man, where after a brief moment of unsuspected melodic bliss, I am thrusted back into chaos with a dizzying and impressive run of guitar riffs.

My complaints regarding this record are few and relatively non-consequential. The opening to the record I felt could've gone a little harder considering it was the album's introduction and the shortest song. PacmAnthem pretty much rides on the same guitar riff for the entire duration of the track, not really expanding into anything really exciting. Finally, while the chiptune sections are decent, I feel like time is being taken away from what we really want to hear from Pacmanthemovie and what they ultimately do the best. That being said though, the interlude after Hellzzz Kitchen and Pacmanthegame are so brief that the flow of the record doesn't feel interrupted.

Pacmanthemovie 2: Eat Lives is a great record. Fun, chaotic, aggressive, noisy, and much more memorable than a lot of stuff in this genre tends to be. Not to mention, the production is great; modest, natural, but heavy and punchy. Just the way I like it. I really hope this band can continue to earn a following as I truly think they are one of the most stellar bands presently occupying this lane. Any fans of Three.One.G acts should definitely take notice. You won't want to miss this one.