The Tanks – Summon Creature / 2006 Floodwater / 10 Tracks / http://www.the-tanks.com / http://www.floodwaterrecords.com / Reviewed 23 July 2006

The heavy, echoing guitars that start off “Blood in my Eyes” do not immediately inform listeners to what The Tanks’ general sound would be during “Summon Creature”. When the band is playing for a few minutes, individuals will be able to tell that the band has a lot of MC5 and Stooges albums in storage, as well as a New York Dolls disc or two. The heavy sound may seem newer to some, but really only is a slight re-tooling of the rock style that begat punk all those years back. Tracks on “Summon Creature” all enjoy a specific sound by the band; the step-ladder guitar lines of “Seven Minutes in Heaven, Pt 1” provide a “hulking up” of the band’s output. This has the added benefit of giving the follow-up track “Jesusphish” a bolding that makes listeners tune in.

The Tanks take on a slightly newer, Red Hot Chili Peppers meets Faith No More sound to “Jesusphish”. The track is still very marketable, but is dense to the degree that listeners will have to listen to the track a number of times before understanding everything that the band has placed on this track. The band takes a completely different path for the second half of “Jesusphish”. This means that The Tanks include a synthesizer and a back and forth type of tempo to keep individuals interested in the style of rock that they brew up for “Summon Creature”.

The guitars that open up “Where We Call Home” seem to have more in common with noise acts than anything; even though the track may not have the speed of a Locust track, the off-the-wall type of guitar arrangements approximate those put down by The Locust. The inclusion of a backing set of vocals during “Where We Call Home” gives the band a fuller sound than in previous tracks; The Tanks are not happy just settling into a groove after they make a few solid tracks. The band thrashes around “Summon Creature” for only a few minutes after the half-hour mark, but the stamp that they put on rock lasts for much longer than that. The band reinvents the rock wheel by never saying never; there can be any type of sound or style present in a track on “Summon Creature”, and The Tanks do not flinch once. It has only been twenty years, but something is finally coming out of the mid-West that will shake the musical establishment to its foundations.

Top Tracks: Jesusphish, Where We Call Home

Rating: 7.2/10

[JMcQ]