Album Review: Red Fang - "Arrows"

Part of the undeniable truth of Red Fang is that they are a singles band.  While it might be overindulgent to suggest that the band employs a wide array of styles on each album, it is within the realm to state that they use a plethora of different tones and pace to create different emotional states. 

The result of all this is no album is complete effort, and the listener is thus forced to pick and choose which moment appeal to his or her individual taste.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – very few albums are perfect experiences for any individual – but it does mean that grading the album becomes a more complicated and subjective affair.

2011’s “Murder The Mountains” is largely regarded as the gold standard for Red Fang, the most complete and consistent of any of their efforts, and while “Arrows” has some moments that are in similar in accomplishment, it will not unseat that previous effort from the throne.

Red Fang have always been at their best when balancing a groovy downbeat with emotionally bleak subject matter.  “Good to Die,” and “Number Thirteen” both immediately come to mind.  “Arrows” boasts a couple of those same moments, and they come in the form of both the album’s early singles, the first being the title track, and then “Why,” much farther down on the album.  They’re both the kind of low-key, secretly infectious rhythms that Red Fang specializes in, and both will have you humming them in your daily life.  And then your wife asks you what song you’re humming, and you realize that your brain is pleasantly occupied by a song about irredeemable drug use and the callous non-caring of an indifferent society.

Now, between the margins of their usual anti-inspirational messaging, Red Fang usually fills in their albums with high-octane, stoner metal bangers.  “Hank is Dead” and “Cut It Short” are both mainstays of the Red Fang catalogue, popular at every show.  “Arrows” tries to emulate this winning formula, but none of the songs quite grip on that level.  “Two High” and “Anodyne” situated in the middle of the record, both try to fill that gap, and there are a few others, but none of the faster songs on “Arrows” are possessed of the same charm as the ones mentioned above.

Part of the confusion of “Arrows” is that it seems like there should be more here.  When “Whales and Leeches” was released, the listener had an immediate sense that it was not a pinnacle effort of the band.  “Arrows” doesn’t feel like that when you’re listening to it – all the effort and production and songwriting is there, it just doesn’t land many punches.  In the end, it’s easy to get trapped in, listening to it five or six times to try and unearth another kernel, as happened over the course of composing this article.

In the end, “Arrows” is a mild disappointment.  Better than “Whales and Leeches,” certainly, but not as good as “Only Ghosts,” and nowhere near the hallmark of “Murder the Mountains.”  Which is concerning only because it makes three album cycles since a band that is evidently great has released a world-class effort.