His Name Is Alive
Tecuciztecatl
28 October 2014
4 stars out of 5
Despite having mastered a dozen or so different genres over
their two-and-a-half-decade career, including ethereal goth, neo-soul,
noise-rock, jazz, gamelan, and arrangements for amplified pine cones, His Name
Is Alive have always been instantly recognizable as His Name Is Alive. Tecuciztecatl is no different, meaning
it’s completely different: a full-blown rock opera named after the moon god of
the Aztecs, with a story along the lines of a Hammer horror film and music loosely
based on the collected guitar solos of Thin Lizzy (I’m not even joking). Now a
quartet consisting of Warren Defever, Andrea Morici, Dusty Jones, and J. Rowe,
HNIA spent a couple of years writing and recording this record, during which
time Defever and Jones practiced their duelling guitar solo techniques by
creating a seventy-minute edit “of every Thin Lizzy guitar solo from 1971 to
1983” and playing along.
The opening track is the most epic thing that HNIA has ever
dedicated to ones and zeros: “The Examination” shifts through many different
musical themes through its thirteen-plus minutes, from Thin Lizzy and Shades of a
Blue Orphanage to Renegade and Thunder and Lightning. Andy FM’s vocal
performance is the best of her time with the band so far. And the solos… I have
a friend who I constantly anger because I keep telling her “rock is dead” (she’s
probably the most technically gifted guitar soloist I know), but now I may have
to play her “Reflect Yourself” and apologize for the errors of my ways. But
this ain’t no wank fest—every lick and riff serves a purpose and propels the
story, and the story is appropriately dark and creepy. Has HNIA resurrected
rock ‘n’ roll? In reality this is doubtful, but for the duration of Tecuciztecatl it’s easy to believe that
they have.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
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