ANONYMOUS

Personnel: Mike Patton (vocals, keyboards, percussion, electronics); Duane Denison (guitar, bass guitar); John Stanier (drums, percussion). Audio Mixer: Mike Patton. Recording information: Lake Fever Productions, Nashville, TN; Vulcan Studios, San Francisco, CA. Editor: Ryan Boesch. Love him or hate him, there are few musicians more insatiably curious than Mike Patton. He maintains numerous projects and churns out records at a furious clip, each one drastically different from the next. In Tomahawk, he has finally found bandmates willing to change with him, as ANONYMOUS, their third full-length, clearly demonstrates a departure from previous outings. With a stacked lineup of metal all-stars including ex-Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison and John Stanier from Helmet, Patton delivers one of his oddest yet most satisfying listens since the Faith No More days. Based on "anonymous" late-19th-century transcripts of Native American songs and chants, the album finds Tomahawk reimagining these lost songs as haunting prog-metal. The trio creates a dark and affecting juxtaposition of ancient pagan chants and modern metal bombast, the results of which are anthemic, yet (remarkably enough) quite tasteful. Tracks such as "War Song," "Ghost Dance," and "Totem" all miraculously work as both earnest ethnomusicology and fierce, experimental metal.