Thee Oh Sees are always the same but different, drifting through genres before twisting them out of shape ... On A Weird Exits, they do this more successfully than ever before, with Dwyer taking the band into pulsing dance rhythms and Krautrock as he explores the rich, crackling rhythmic potential of the group’s new two-drummer lineup.
Thee Oh Sees push their normal cartoonishly unhinged garage punk into new krautrock-inspired levels of madness on A Weird Exits.
Thee Oh Sees are not a band that will ever seriously reconsider their dynamics, and nor should they. A Weird Exits just goes to show that some bands are so vital to their scene that they never need to change.
With Mutilator, and now this album, the band is firing on all cylinders and then some, making psych-prog-metal-punk jams for the ages.
Even when their pendulum is swinging at a steadier pace, Thee Oh Sees still have the power to hypnotize—but from its twitchy jams to its blown-out power ballads, A Weird Exits’ most intriguing moments come when they break the trance.
There’s nothing in A Weird Exits that signals a massive change in the future of Thee Oh Sees, nor does it stand head and shoulders above their catalog. Instead it’s one of many great records they’ve produced and one that shows a refinement and strengthening in John Dwyer’s guitar and voice and one that will continue to fill mosh pits the world over.
There isn’t much to separate A Weird Exits from its 16 predecessors, although it does take elements of their renowned sound and push it to its limits like never before.
A Weird Exits feels like the first time in a while that Dwyer has chosen to take a lurch forward rather than a small step.
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