Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Of Natural History
Web of Mimicry

This band is clearly something unusual. Mixing prog rock with metal and having an odd concept of a donkey-headed adversary of mankind does nothing to endear a band to a large audience. Well, maybe if it's a weird one. Add to the general oddness singer Nils Frykdahl's Michael Gira-ish tones and we have the least populist band since Gira's Swans called it a day.

The song of the adversary goes from calm to metal assault to and then into odder strains of folk as seen through a mirror of doom. It's an enjoyable album if you are in the mood for it. "Phitisis" is sung by the bands female singer who sounds like Bjork's evil twin. The backing is pure metal with apocalyptic strings and choirs. "Gunday's Child" starts out as haunted anti-lullaby and then gets progressively stranger and richer. We end with a suitably bizarre ode to a cockroach. Frykdahl sounds like a deranged country singer.

So, not an album for everyone but if you feel you've heard everything and would like something out of the ordinary. Well this is it. It's a hard ride but one worth taking.

Copyright © 2005 Anna Maria Stjärnell