Absolutely by Something Is Waiting

Four years since the release of its sophomore effort, Songs for the Sally Beauty Pavilion, Something Is Waiting returns with a brand new full-length. Absolutely is an unapologetic tour-de-force that sees this Chicago band dig its heels even deeper into the strange patch of dirt it owns – "the shrieky, sleazy, crust-glam you crave," as one review from Kerrang! describes it.

Sounding unlike any other band of today, Something Is Waiting exudes all the swagger of the latter-day hair metal saints and up-and-coming groove-metal goons who filled Riki Rachtman's cue cards in the earliest days of the '90s, yet seethes with enough vitriol to delight the nihilistic noise rock hordes who gathered to witness its set at this year's Caterwaul Festival.

"House of Style," the new album's first single and opening track, sets the tone. Drummer Idin Alexzander pounds out a colossal backbeat with all the arena-hyping power of an upside-down Tommy Lee. Guitarist/bassist William Thomas Fay lays down the law with a bone-quaking, Page Hamilton/Wes Borland groove, before launching into a godly guitar solo that bursts with triumphant Steve Stevens histrionics. Cardigan-clad ringleader Eddie Gobbo has honed his Axl/Sebastian squawk to perfection – every word from his shredded throat rips the ears with pure contempt.

Formerly a five-piece, stripped down to a trio now, Something Is Waiting's three core members have stuck to their guns and mastered their craft. Gobbo and the boys' dedication to the likes of Pantera, White Zombie, and the early works of Ross Robinson, coupled with their enduring love of the most caustic cuts from the AmRep catalog, has paid off. Six years deep, the band is in a league of its own, the undisputed king of its own style of hard-charging "nu roll," which no one else within noise rock – or within any other strain of heavy music currently deemed "cool" – is even doing.

But make no mistake: while the musical elements might seem simple and traceable, Something Is Waiting is not. Using a palette of sounds inspired by their aforementioned heroes, the band builds unusual songs that are as perplexing as they are headbangable.

And here is where it gets even more interesting: Gobbo is a wildly creative lyricist who conjures surreal scenarios with the euphoric wordplay of a Beat poet. His critiques, pointed at an array of targets, from the music industry to society at large, are thick with sarcasm and pop culture references. On "House of Style," he quotes a lyric from The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian." On "In the Pool (Wetworld)," which features guest vocals by Dead to Fall's Jon Hunt, he spits the gem, "drunk like Sia with my hair in my face." The album's closer, "Poster Boys," is written from the point of view of a Hit Parader centerfold, hanging on a teenage girl’s wall.

Revealing his thoughts behind "House of Style," he states: "That song is about being comfortable and confident in your own shoes, particularly from an artistic standpoint. That's a subconscious theme we've really carried with us in the band, from the jump. Being unapologetically you."

Indeed, Absolutely is the sound of a band being unapologetically... them. It is the sound of a band that has doubled down and committed to its own, odd vision. It is the sound of a new genre: "nu roll." It is, absolutely, Something Is Waiting.