5 out of 5

Label: Rock Action Records

Produced by: Hieronymus Melchers (recorded by)

Another candidate for ‘loudest album of all time’ – already considering Part Chimp as one of the loudest bands of all time – the group’s aptly named fourth release, IV, should be, “all time” claims aside, a guidebook for how to amp up the volume without killing your audience: push and pull.

I mean, I like a no-brakes rocker as much as anyone, and they have their place, but they can also be pretty exhaustive, much more subject to needing to be timed rather exactingly so you get your fill of headbanging but aren’t so throttled by album’s end that you’ve essentially stopped listening a few songs in. There are also bands that play in this space that maybe aren’t about speed, but nonetheless knock out their grooves at a similar pitch and pace for the entire runtime, amounting to the same effect: your ears tune in for a hook here and there, but one song may as well be any other.

Now that I’ve gone and lumped all of your favorite bands into two general categories I’m shrugging at, we can assess Part Chimp IV’s supremacy: existing somewhere between stoner rock and punk, PC have a built-in push and pull that can be achieved by sequencing of an album, something IV absolutely nails: the album surges or surfs between longer running blazes of searing riffage and thumps – veering on dirge – and 2-3 minute bursts of energy that can release the brakes as needed. The ability to flex, believably and consistently, between those approaches has given their rock an enduring quality that makes each release an exciting proposition, and not necessarily just a continued variation on a theme – Chimp may lean more heavily in one direction or another on an album, and in so doing, allows them to experiment more in that direction.

Anted up even moreso here is how this overall push and pull iterates out at all levels, while still maintaining utter, earth-shaking volume throughout, giving credit to mixers Ben Turner and Hieronymus Melchers, with Melchers also on recording duty – the clean open of Namekuji rattles tensely alongside its unleashing of distortion and drums, and the way these sounds balance throughout with vocals and bass (tuned up or down, depending on the needs of the song) shows care / awareness for each individual moment, i.e. IV is not just the pursuit of noise. This is pretty directly noticeable in the vocal treatment, which gets alternately backgrounded or given some vocoder-like treatment, or is left “untouched,” again not only depending on where the focus should be for that song, but also in a way that just mixes things up, so each track has its own texture.

Lastly: groups like this – and Chimp has been guilty of this as well – can be kinda silly, lyric-wise. That’s… fun, and sometimes fitting, if the m.o. is just about fightin’ and drinkin’, for example, but I don’t mind having the silliness masked as well; in the same way where no brakes all the time is exhausting, being silly all the time… is a choice, but it feels like a joke that runs its course pretty quickly. I have no idea if the lyrics for IV are silly or not, as I can only pick up a few here and there, but the impression they leave is impactful. There’s passion in the singing, or purpose if the singing is in the aforementioned background layer. Now, you may put a lyric sheet in front of me and its all about boobs, but I’ve gone through this album multiple times trying to tune in to the words, and the fact that I can’t, easily, at least tells me that – if they are about boobs – that that isn’t intended to be the first thing I hear.

I love this album. Part Chimp are loud, and that is their bread and butter, but I’ve been continually impressed with how much room they’ve found within the relative borders of being a noise rock band, and IV truly exemplifies what I want (more often) from this genre – something I can listen to, end-to-end, truly rocking out to, with songs I can uniquely identify and that doesn’t leave me feeling like I need to chill out to some James Taylor after a few tracks. Does the stuff I’ve somewhat ragged on have its place? Tooootally. But it’s pretty cool to have some loud ass rock that always has its place.