Gauntlet Hair - Gauntlet Hair

About a year ago my roommate told me that he found a great new band and proceeded to show me Gauntlet Hair. At first I had the reaction I imagine most people have when hearing a name like Gauntlet Hair, which is "lol what?" Name aside, I was impressed. All I had was a little 7" and three songs that I couldn't stop listening to. Needless, to say, I was ecstatic when I saw their LP had finally released.

I think an anonymous comment on youtube said it best, "these guys sing 'OOOhhhoOOoo' the best. It seems as though the two talented gents from Gauntlet Hair also understand this, and they open album their self titled album with exactly that. I'm not one to say first impressions are everything with an album, but with an opening that just drops into the beat heavy almost crunk feel of Gaunlet Hair one would have to try pretty hard to not take notice of it. The drums are impressive, and thump throughout each song with a fervor that keeps the intensity of the reverberated guitars and vocals punctuated, in a similar method to Slay Bells. Gauntlet Hair does a wonderful job at allowing the listener to forget that there are only two of them that write all this. The guitar is tweaked enough that it sounds like there is a lot more going on than there actually is, and it plays off itself brilliantly, like reverb asking ambiance how it's day was.

There's really not much to say about the vocals themselves, I feel as though the focus is far away from the meaning of the lyrics, and closer to the melody of the vocals and the pure existence of it. The vocals really accentuate the mood of the song on top of the guitar parts. It's not necessarily the relatively inaudible vocal instruments of a group like My Bloody Valentine or any other noise focused groups, but the held notes by vocalist Andy R., are ones that can be "OOoo'd" along with or hummed by themselves pleasantly because of their pop sensibility.

The album isn't all pop and dance grooves, there are the darker tunes to balance the relative brightness of the rest of the album. The track "My Christ" in the center of the album is a great example of this, as it has what seem to be clashing melodies, and a more forlorn nature. Toward the end of the album, there is what I would consider the closest to a ballad, in "Showing". It's a fantastic break from the relatively high BPM that the rest of the album shows off, particularly the following song, "That's Your Call".

Moral of the story, is this album is something fantastic, and it's a blast to listen to, certainly worth your time. Glad to see the improvement in recording quality from their 7" yet still retain that crunchy feeling. I hope to be hearing much more from these guys in the future.