Album of the day: Harvey Milk – Life… The Best Game in Town

On their fifth full length, the Athens quartet of Harvey Milk continues to meander with meaty riffs and oppressive slabs of stoner-esque tomfoolery.
The bands distinct delivery, which respectfully and lovingly both emulates and encapsulates southern rock, features slow, down-tuned guitars, whiskey and cigarette soaked vocals, thick bass and crashing drums.

Featuring such riff-rock gems as the instrumental  ‘After All I’ve Done For You, This is How You Repay Me?’, whose catchy and fast paced guitar driven intro gives way to dronesque reverb and ‘We Destroy the Family’, (a cover of punk band FEAR) which features low-end punk-rock riffing overtop of messy yelping vocals, the album begins on a strong note and continues faithfully down said path.

On the fantastic ‘Motown’, the album fully hits its stride. As a seemingly drunkenly yell along track, its slow paced groovy rhythm and clean instrumentals make for a pop metal pinnacle.

Now rearmed with Joe Preston, (formerly of Earth, High on Fire, The Melvins and also a member of Thrones) the hard-hitting Harvey Milk is sure to continue what they’ve done best throughout their inconsistent history: demonstrate that slow and steady indeed does win the race.
Sarah Kitteringham

Harvey Milk -- Life… The Best Game in Town
CD /  LP -- Hydra Head Records: 2008

Tags: album of the day, Harvey Milk, hydra head records, joe preston, melvins

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 7:21 am and is filed under 2009, News, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.