Antabus Season Ender Review

That’s the kind of album I used to love few years ago and it used to make me very happy. It’s not that I don’t like this kind of music anymore. It’s just some kind of tiredness. Not really tiredness, it’s that I’ve been discovering other sonancies that attract me more. Just that. Or maybe to me it’s a worn out formula. I really don’t know, so I did what I always do when I’m in doubt. I gave the band a second chance. And here I am.

My mind gets in a turmoil of references and recollections listening to this Antabus “Season Ender.” The list of bands I remembered is long and I’m not pretty sure if it’s worth to enlist all of them. Anyway, some of them are too important not to give them voice. First of all, as I always like to do – so sorry if I’m a nagging old fellow that every review has to say anything about genre and how they were used in the past. But it’s historically necessary and relevent. A few years ago “Season Ender” would be labeled as Psychedelic Rock or, maybe, even Acid Rock. The kind of music that was kicked off after the release of the seminal 1967’s The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” an album that was really a groundbreaker in Rock music, and then years later, to Metal music. Simply put, there would be no Metal music without it. “Season Ender” does a tour around references from this time in each track and the use of the fuzz pedal in the guitars really sparked my attention. That was exactly the first thing that raised my eye to the album in a recollection of Janis Joplin’s eternal version of “Summertime” a song that all metalheads should know better. Janis Joplin is the first, and most importante, reference I could quote here though “Happiness” wouldn’t be a song that she would ever record. Janis Joplin was the opposite of happy. The kind of guitar solo, slow and naive, is just the same. The kind of guitar solo where any note is too damn important. Then comes the next “Stonebridge” whose Black Sabbath’s first albums influence is so clear. The taciturn male vocals in it make a hell of difference giving the song its identity. The fuzz pedal is steaming hot in this particular track.

I won’t say “Season Ender” is for the fan that misses this kind of sonancy. It’s more than that. It’s an interesting album with a very good tip on to be extremely heavy without being fast and how clean vocals can still be interesting.

Antabus “Season Ender” was released on February 26th via Fono Music Distribution Sweden.

Track Listing: