Spitbite work their sonic magic in that place where all manner of harder and heavier musical forms come together, merging and melting into their own signature sound, one that can push off in any direction, be it metal, grunge, stoner rock, or even more post-rock forms. But it also means that they can look forward and create music for the present age while also tipping their collective hats to the sounds of the past. No more is this duality present than in their latest single, “False Gods.”
For all its obvious modernity, there is a sound embedded in it that I can’t shake off, a sort of lilting ebb and flow that has served the harder end of rock music well from everyone from the later, heavier output of the likes of Thin Lizzy to Metallica’s more complex forms, a whole wave of bands that made up the early eighties UK scene known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and on into modern alt-rock in all its forms.
“False Gods” captures the same scope and scale, the same intricacies and intrigue, the same blend of melody and muscle as such precursor bands but for every resonant riff or thundering drum pattern that seems to call to those earlier times, there are plenty more modern sounds at work. Here, there is no small amount of cavernous, almost post-rock walls of sound, dark, alt-rock vocal intensity, and even hints of the nu-metal sonic revolution.
But for me, it all comes back to that lovely lilting sound. Despite the complexities and cleverness, the sonic switches and unpredictable changes, and all the other intelligent sonic moves, that primordial sound, the sway, the dance-inducing ritual buried at its core calls out to me the strongest. And I love the song all the more because of it.
Music is more than just sonics and words; it is shamanistic, primitive, and ritualistic, and rarely has a song felt like a hymn to the ancient lords of the dance than does “False Gods.”
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