Pelican - What We All Come To Need

Read my entire review on The Silent Ballet

Pelican have been using the heavy riff platform to capture a pop sensibility for years, and here on WWACTN we have catchy proto-metal storytelling along with the first taste of the band incorporating vocals. Whether they continue doing this is another matter, but the band sounds more crisp with its song writing. At times their riff-to-riff style can smell a bit like riff-by-number, arbitrarily piecing parts together, but Pelican get to the point more quickly here than on past albums, and it makes for a very satisfying listen -- Maybe as satisfying as the new Pelican Burger at Kuma's Corner in Chicago, who name all their burgers after famous metal bands. A ten ounce beef patty with pan-seared scallops and lardons in a garlic white wine sauce on top of a parmesan crisp, served with white wine-garlic aioli sounds good. If all this doesn't whet your appetite for a band that is doing metallic post-rock as good as anybody, then not much else will.