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In their second studio release, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum build upon the sound, graphic aesthetic, and well, 'mythology,' introduced on their debut studio album, Grand Opening and Closing. This mythology is comprised of the writings of Lala Rolo and John Kane, whom the liner notes describe as arcane philosophers turned amateur naturalist observers with the onset of the Great Depression. Specifically, their theory of a "Parallel and Inverse Evolution": that while man appears to be progressing with technology and specialization, he is in actuality devolving, moving through a successive emulation of the behaviors and structures of increasingly lower animal forms. That is to say, going from the earliest dwellers mimicking the forest dwelling primates, to hunters sharpening sticks and stones (mimicking the teeth of the predatory animals), to living in caves (mimicking the burrows of rodents), to the concentrated populations of contemporary cities (mimicking the hierarchical colonies of insects). The band presents a photo quiz to the reader in their CD booklet, to cleverly reinforce this main theme. When the band played opened the second day set at NEARfest in 2003, they started off with "A Hymn to the Morning Star." A gem of a song hovering between the luminescent and the unsettling, the sweet and foreboding, it reminds one of a morbid Tom Waits lullaby, or perhaps a Peter Hammill snarling from the pulpit (though I have yet to hear Hammill take on such lines as "the blood of the throttled hen"). And boy can Nils Frykdahl hit those low notes. With an invocation, the song segues into the explosive next track, "The Donkey-Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens the Discussion." Much as "Sleep Is Wrong" on their debut, "Adversary" demonstrates the force of this band and the precision of their execution. This is incredible stuff, though in all likelihood is destined to sail straight over the heads of most casual listeners. The album moves getting increasingly abstract and discursive past "Freedom Club" to a point that is hard to follow, but gains its second wind with "Babydoctor" and arrives at its finish line with the comparatively lighthearted, yet still characteristically uneasy, "Cockroach." The only song I didn't really like is "The Creature," which is all right musically but has an overall schlockiness to it that strikes me as out of step with the rest of the album. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum are at least one band that lend a true representation of what a 'progressive rock' band would be were one to find them in the 21st century. Drawn from that idiom, there is the complex, dynamic music drawing from a diverse array of musical influences. There is the sense of artsy ambition that clearly sets them apart from most other of today's rock bands. Also, much like Robert Macan discussed in his book Rocking the Classics on prog rock's early days, there is also apparent a consistent lyrical aesthetic, with the use of symbols and imagery (e.g., the Unabomber, the Futurist movement of Italy, various insects) that on the surface just seems bizarre and yet still manages to make sense in some way, cohering quite well to deliver a sort of 'code' a subversive message (i.e., the technological descent of man) to a devoted audience. At the nexus of all of these elements, the band has a deserved reputation for theatrical and vibrant live performances. Yet, while they have all of these elements under which golden age progressive rock bands thrived, the mission statement of SGM clearly extends beyond simply mimicking the sound and feel of Prog Rock in the 70s. As demonstrated so far, this is a band of people who clearly have talent and something to say. review by Joe McGlinchey — 7-17-05 —

b r a n d o n

Having been immersed in death metal for some time now, it's been easy for me to lose sight of the fact that there is innovation in heavy metal music outside of the extreme metal genre. Of Natural History has been a nice wake-up call: it is original and innovative in the best sense. And despite their musical schizophrenia and penchant for the avant-garde, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is, deep down, a great metal band. But not just any metal band; both musically and lyrically, this group breaks the mold. Musically, they are all over the map - the majority of their great songs are headbanger-friendly, but they also play with atmosphere and know when to ratchet back on the volume control. Lyrically, they present what is essentially a radical environmentalist agenda (very well elaborated in this review at ProgressiveEars); Of Natural History can be read as an extended metaphor of the human race as a parasite upon the Earth. The metaphor gets really weird, to a tongue-in-cheek extent at times, but it's there. Both music and lyrics are dark while still maintaining a sense of humor: not so much hellish as demonically twisted. What it all comes down to is the fact that this album is Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's most coherent statement to date. It's still a bit uneven, with the energy petering out a bit in the second half of the album. But the low points never get too low, while the high points are off the charts. Of particular note are the vocals: they range from the death-metal roar familiar from Grand Opening and Closing to Carla Kihlstedt's sinister, imposing sensuousness to the unexpectedly reverent deep crooning that opens the album. This is a band that uses different vocal styles to set the tone and carry the mood, up to and including straight narration. It sounds pretentious, but the music is there to match every step. More than anything else, it's the feeling of cohesiveness that is impressive about Of Natural History. It all fits together somehow, these unabashedly bizarre pieces, to make an album much greater than the sum of its parts. It doesn't hurt, of course, that those parts are made up of some pretty swell music in the first place. review by Brandon Wu — 11-14-04 —