When I was in high school, I used to hang out with these twins who
were purists of the Hessian lifestyle. Between arguments about when
Metallica started sucking and periods of memorizing Yngwie Malmsteen
guitar solos, the dudes would gobble down mass amounts of Kraft dinners
and craft low-budget horror movies with their parents' camcorder. It
was through these hairy compatriots that I was first introduced to
Black Sabbath. They would spend lunch-hour teaching me classic Sabbath
riffs in their basement, but I was just beginning my trek into the
realms of indie, punk and hardcore and was uninterested in anything
bearing Ozzy's name.
So I'd hoped that Everything Comes and Goes would finally be
the record that could bridge the gap between cheese-ball metal and
esteemed indie. Released on the reliable Temporary Residence imprint,
the album features a handful of notable underground artists --
including Four Tet, Racebannon, the Anomoanon, Matmos, and Ruins --
reinterpreting classic Sabbath. But the results are varied. Matmos's
boring "F/X" pale in comparison to Racebannon's soaring version of
"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath." Four Tet once again proves his invincibility
with a stunning reinvention of the group's most annoying riff on "Iron
Man."
Despite its moments of elegance, Everything Comes and Goes
feels incomplete. With virtually no information included in the
packaging and a clear lack in actual Temporary Residence bands (the
Anomoanon is the only band on the label's roster, which also includes
Eluvium and Tarentel), this years' delayed tribute album comes as a
good idea and goes as a minor disappointment.
Discuss this review at the Prefix Message Board
'Everything Comes and Goes' on Temporary Residence's Web site
Various Artists »
