THE RESIDENTS

THE RESIDENTS     “Doctor Dark”

By Dark Starr 

This album is a concept release. You could probably call it a rock opera. That said, it’s THE RESIDENTS, so you know it’s not going to be your typical rock opera. This fully represents the sound we expect from this outfit while also stretching it into some new directions. I fully understand why some people don’t like THE RESIDENTS. Their sound is not built for mass consumption. I love their artsy brand of strangeness, though. This might not be my favorite album of theirs, but every RESIDENTSalbum has its charms, and this one has a lot of them. 

“Prelude / Metal Madness” opens the album. There is a symphonic vibe to the intro along with the sounds of nature. It turns dark and dissonant later. Then pounding metallic music emerges, in keeping with the title. It is driving and crazed. The vocals bring a hardcore punk vibe with them. After that runs through, spacey elements take control. Then we get a return to the hardcore-meets-metal approach before it drops back to mellower modes with a symphonic angle. A spoken voice joins at the end to proclaim that he hates himself, too. Ambient weirdness gets things underway on “White Guys With Guns.” The cut turns more symphonic from there. It drives out after a time to something that has a lot of modern prog mixed with alternative rock and more. This continues to evolve with symphonic elements, alternative rock ones, punk angles and even some operatic things merging into something that’s decidedly THE RESIDENTS. 

“Maggot Remembers” is next. Starting mellow and featuring echoey weirdness, symphonic things rise up from there. It eventually makes its way out to driving hard rocking sounds. It continues to evolve and display trademark RESIDENTS twists and weirdness. This really goes through a lot of changes as it drives forward. Symphonic elements, art music, punk and more merge on “Tension.” It’s not pretty, but it is dramatic and powerful. It has some skit type stuff built into it at times and is very dynamic and diverse. The slow, dirge-like vibe that starts “She Was Never Lovelier” is both oddly pretty and just plain tastefully weird. It gets more energized and driving later with some symphonic stuff. That doesn’t last a long time, though, dropping back to the slower stuff that came before. “The Gift” is next. There are a lot of spoken vocals in the mix along with some sung ones. It is dramatic, bizarre and decidedly  trademark RESIDENTS. It is so weird. 

Slow and dirge like, “Remembering Mother” is artistic. It’s also got a lot of symphonic elements at play. As strange as it is, it’s also somehow beautiful. It turns pounding and bombastic later with a sea of voices bringing a different vibe to it. I really like the mix of art rock and almost traditional prog, symphonic and electronic vibes as “Contemplation” gets underway. It builds on those concepts throughout. I dig the slow moving art rock vibe to “Survived.” It’s electronic and dramatic. It’s actually one of the more mainstream things on the album, too. Mind you, I’m not saying it’s mainstream, especially in some of the weird side excursions. But it’s more mainstream than a lot of the rest of the stuff here is. The first half of “Calm Before” is melodic art rock. Later, though, it dissolves into extreme weirdness. The piece has some really cool electronic melodies serving both as the accompaniment for and the sound after a spoken monologue. 

“Circle Of Horns” is artsy, creepy and so tastefully weird. There is a lot of instrumental stuff. A section with some sped-up vocals is absolutely terrifying in its vibes. There is plenty of weirdness built into “Unchanged.” It has some gospel music in it. Then the lyrics from that get redone in a weird, freaky way. It gets into some driving art rock meets punk territory later, too. Trademark RESIDENTS, “The Gift Keeps Giving” has symphonic vibes, electronic ones and art rock at its core. It’s dramatic and intriguing, but also tastefully weird. Piano starts things on “A Choice?.” It eventually works out to a dirge-like movement. That holds it for a time, but then echoey weirdness takes over from there. It is artsy, strange and also cool. “Ol’ Man River” is next, and driving, artsy, rocking weirdness is on the menu. It is a classy tune. “Take Me To The River” is electronic, weird and still tasty. Most of the vocals are rather choir-like. The music gets somewhat symphonic as it moves forward. 

If you're looking for strange music, you'll find it here!

THE RESIDENTS