Review: 36 Crazyfists

36 Crazyfists
“Bitterness the Star”
(Roadrunner Records)

36 Crazyfists is named after a a Jackie Chan movie. I like Jackie Chan, but not in a pissed off, karate-on-the-dance floor kind of way. He’s more of a “Rush Hour” comedy icon to me. But these Alaskans chose this to be the moniker for their interesting approach to melodic hard rock. That’s right—I said Alaskans.

Their sound is passionately charged post-hardcore with deep grooves like the most righteous Deftones jam, but Brock Lindow’s vocals are enough to make me want to throw this disc right in the trash. When he’s screaming, the Fists are one above all. But he doesn’t scream one tenth as often as he needs to, and his warbly Midnight Oil style of singing is a real buzzkill. This could have been the bomb dot com too, because the music is such a devastating sonic explosion. Colossal riffs and unforgettable melodies ooze out of every speaker hole.

Steve Holt just about creates musical ecstasy with his guitar, while Mick Whitney keeps the low end nice and tight, and Thomas Noonan (insert Caddyshack joke here) drums me right into a seizure. Guest appearances by NORA’s Carl Severson on the track “One More Word” and Skinlab’s Steev Esquivel on “Bury Me Where I Fall” are only there to disappoint, leaving me with a taste of what could have been. Almost so good, but not quite.