Boyfrndz keeps a tentacle in many bodies of water, from tidal post-rock and crushing typhoons of doom metal to the boiling pools of psychedelia and urgent river currents of Trail of Dead’s prog-punk. Breeder, second full-length by the Austin foursome, takes a gallon from each and pours it over the amps all at once. Guitars rise and fall, dragging melodies up from the depths and sending them soaring off into space, while drums crash like a thunderstorm, then pull back into a gentle wind blowing through the fields. Meanwhile, Scott Martin’s keening tenor swoops through what little empty space manifests between slabs of swollen riffery. Prolific producer Erik Wofford reigns in the chaos of “Burn Through It,” “Dark Braining,” and the massive “Make Believe.” Like a gelatinous mass of shape-shifting translucence, Breeder doesn’t play back so much as flow.
This article appears in April 4 • 2014.
