Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Everything in life comes down to two subjects, sex and death. For the witty, taxes comes into the equation as a means of pointing out that everything alive between finding a lover and the point of ultimate demise is just basically because everybody is out to take advantage of you. In amongst it all though is the somehow forgotten entity of Time.  Sex and death may be the two romantic visions that a poet will surreptitiously weave into a new sonnet and mentally ask their readers to gouge out the sentiments tied up within, but Time is ever present and demands more than the other state of affairs put together.

For 36 Crazyfists, arguably the premier band to come out of Alaska, Time and the effects of it are a theme in which, even if unspoken, runs through the heart of the heavy machine on offer on the blistering new album, Time and Trauma.

Time is plentiful until we realise just how little we have of it going spare, just how few hours there is to listen to the clock and tick that hides between the tock. To take full advantage of it, you have to fill life with meaningful pursuits and listen to the thoughts of others, sometimes with nothing more than a huge amount of respect, for what they say and for how they somehow manage to deliver it. In Brock Lindow, the vocalist and lyric writer for 36 Crazyfists that delivery might not suit all who catch a passing listen to it, but for many it is the sound of the primal scream, the urge of the primordial yell, that displays a honesty and openness in which Time is both healer, enemy and resounding temptress.

Aided by the line-up of the last few years, Steve Holt, Mick Whitney and Kyle Baltus, the sound of the vocals is enhanced throughout Time and Trauma, as if the solitary travel-clock in the room that has been not living up to its full potential suddenly finds it has the voice that makes the internal mechanism of Big Ben’s Bell cower under the threat of its new rival.

With songs such as 11.21.11, the title track of the album Time and Trauma, the near epic feel of Also I Am and the darkness that breathes in the soul of Gathering Bones, Time And Trauma is more than capable of living alongside the bands previous releases.

Time, there is never enough of it floating about, however to take in Time and Trauma and give it breathing room is make sure that some flourishes and is worthwhile.

Ian D. Hall