Band Of Susans - The Word And The Flesh

Reviews of the 1991 Band of Susans album The Word and the Flesh highlight it as a strong, accessible, and assured record, featuring a rich "lattice" of intermingling guitars, a signature three-guitar sound, and compelling song structures despite the avant-garde tendencies of their work. Critics praised the album's blend of distorted, feedback-laden soundscapes with well-crafted songs, noting moments of both propulsive crunch and hypnotic drone. While some critics found the band's lyrics "pretentiously poetic," the overall consensus was that The Word and the Flesh was a fine and significant achievement in the band's career. 

Review by Chris Parker

Despite featuring their third pair of guitarists in as many albums (Love Agenda's Page Hamilton departed to form Helmet), Band of Susans deliver their most assured, accessible album. The guitars operate as interlocking pieces of a larger puzzle, while bassist Susan Stenger floats below, providing structure without being chained to the beat. The sound alternates between haunting and crushing, and the guitars are finally consistently corralled into the dramatic service of the song. The clean, nearly reverb-less guitar sound leaves plenty of room to hear the guitars' idiosyncratic directions while maintaining a nearly opaque wall of sound. Most rewarding are the moments when the band breaks loose from their throbbing chords to deliver a crunchy punch to the solar plexus, such as on "Plot Twist" and "Silver Lining." Mostly, though, the effect is of rich lattices of guitar and intermingling swells, lifting and propelling the songs through an omnipresent guitar drone. Bassist Stenger's throaty vocals add a moody counterpoint to the guitars' pitched screech and anchor the album's opening two tracks, not incidentally two of the better compositions on the disc. The album closes with a nod to Robert Poss' mentor, Rhys Chatham, with a cover of Chatham's hypnotic, slow-building fugue "Guitar Trio."

Band Of Susans - Hope Against Hope

Drawing on the influence of the early '80s New York downtown art rock scene, Band of Susans' three guitarists construct a thundering wall of guitar worthy of The Jesus and Mary Chain minus distortion. While sharing some of the same influences as Sonic Youth, the Susans' guitar structures never stray into the dissonant territory staked out by Thurston Moore and company. The result is a more melodic creature, unfortunately the melody lacks character. While the loud wash of guitar is intriguing and sometimes engaging, it too often seems a bit directionless, without a great deal of dynamics or thrust. Part of the problem rests with a rhythm section that is no more than solid, which also goes for Poss' singing. There are moments, however, that scream with promise, such as the title track (reworked from the debut EP), which is notably tighter and more propulsive than most of the other tracks, the rumble of ringing guitars thundering out of the speakers. "All the Wrong Reasons" is another winner, taking a slower, bittersweet tact that meshes the three guitars in a tender ballad featuring a dreamy, somnambulant pulse consistent with the slower Velvet Underground work. While the elements are there, Band of Susans haven't quite got the flavour right.