4 out of 5

Label: Joyful Noise

Produced by: Phil Becker, Big Business

Loud-ass rock duos seem like they should be my thing. I love the seeming paradox of stripping a typical band down to just two players – generally a guitar and drums – and that the music somehow gets louder, and almost primitively rhythmic. But maybe The White Stripes seeded early skepticism into the formula for me, and though I still turn a curious ear towards rock duos, I often find that they miss the mark in some way.

Big Business has generally been one such mark-missing band for me. Drawing from some noisy stalwarts – Karp; Murder City Devils – with chatter at their outset of their extreme sludginess, I was cautiously on board. And I would even say swayed by what I initially heard (and by their starting out on Hydra Head Records, my preferred metal label at the time); but the switch over into fandom remained elusive.

BB had, and continued to have, a couple problems that’ve persisted for a lot of these loud two-people acts: a lack of variation, and a lack of space in their sound, with both issues feeding off of on another. So focused on nailing the fuzzy low end, and massive drums, which admittedly sound awesome, Jared Warren and Coady Willis rarely leave enough room for that sound to really grow, whatever the tempo of the tune. So it just kinda sounds loud, but not in an infectious way. With Jared’s lack of vocal range, and the bass-forward sound, there’s not even much diversity in the music itself, making things somewhat repetitive as well.

These factors didn’t wipe out a lot of positives, mind you, but they prevented any given BB album from becoming a constant in my playlist.

And, frankly, the first half of The Beast You Are plays similarly. There are some tricksy time changes that instantly help to give opener Abdonimal Snowman a hook, and producer Phil Becker does a good job of amping up the low-end to its max while retaining a “clean” sound overall, but still: business as usual. Not a lot of breathing room; lots of same-soundy speak-sung vocals; and even once we get to a slower track (Time And Heat), it’s of the same vibe as what preceded.

But then there’s the rest of the album: starting with The Moor You Know, as it’s also a slower paced, it’s like a redux of Time and Heat, but with a slight, but important change: there are layers; there is space. Sure, the distinction could be that it’s a comparatively softer song than your average BB track, but there are base compositional differences that stand out. This trend, of keeping space, of finding some more nuance in the duo’s approach, is then surprisingly – and satisfyingly – maintained through the remainder of the album, with final song Let Them Grind also feeling like a redux of sorts of the opener, but with a truly epic quality over the more standard business of the band. It all absolutely still sounds like Big Business, it’s just that little bit more patient; less in need of sticking to a “we’re loud and smug about it” mantra at all times, and the quirkiness of the sequencing makes the first half of the album more rewarding as a lead-in on a following go-round.

In a way, I’ve been eager to see where Big Business was heading throughout most of their career. And, yeah, I’m just one fan, and likely in the minority in terms of my above take, but regardless: with The Beast You Are, I now have a comparison point for what’s possible with the band’s sound, and I’m especially eager to hear where it goes from here.