CD Review: Yakuza's 'Transmutations'

Chicago's Yakuza continues the refining process that began on 2006's powerful "Samsara," making stronger distinctions between the quartet's aggressive and mellow sides. Not having many competitors on the psychedelic artcore/free jazz front, Yakuza finds increasing success in translating their unique sound to a wider audience.

"Tear out your eyes so you can see," vocalist Bruce Lamont intones at the onset of "Egocide." Lamont drops his trademark saxophone drones over Matt McClelland's jangling guitar and tribal drum dance, assuring that the song's impending off-kilter woodwind grind is recognizable as Yakuza. This is of course after the charmingly titled "Meat Curtains" kicks off the album with a Mastodon-meets-Isis plod, sounding more in line with accepted indie metal tropes than ever before.

So goes "Transmutations." Most of the disc vascillates between eye-popping, guitar-and-scream-centered thrashers like "Praying for Asteroids" and "Steal the Fire" and numbers such as "Raus," "Perception Management" and "Zombies," which lace lotophagic slow-burn atmospheres with Lamont's hazy croon and reverbed sax.

The most impressive songs here ("Egocide," "Existence Into Oblivion," "Black Market Liver") utilize all the slow, fast, harsh and mellow aspects of the Yakuza sound, achieving genuine mini-epic status through ebb and flow rather than abrupt transitions. Seriously, if Opeth's stately prog metal has an artsier, freakier, crustier American cousin, its name is Yakuza.