The Afghan Whigs – Do To The Beast
Grunge’s black-hearted soulmen, reunited and still resonant, 15 years since their last release.
The first Afghan Whigs album in over 15 years opens with Parked Outside, an unexpectedly metallic crunch that announces their distance from the slower-burning charms of The Twilight Singers, singer Greg Dulli’s main outlet since 2001. But while Do To The Beast – largely recorded at Josh Homme’s Pink Duck studio – polishes the Whigs’ wounded rock to an accessible sheen, it’s never at the expense of the sulphurous, haunted quality that made Gentlemen and Black Love true masterpieces. On It Kills and Lost In The Woods, Dulli channels Here, My Dear-era Marvin, burning in a furnace of his own making but still believing redemption is within his grasp, while on Algiers he locates a Roy Orbison croon that elevates the song’s lissom ache to something profound. The deep soulfulness that always set Afghan Whigs apart from the pack was no mirage, and on Do To The Beast, it has matured with grace and power.
Ed’s note: Do To The Beast is available digitally this week from http://www.itunes.com/theafghanwhigs. The CD and vinyl editions of the album are also available at subpop.com. LP buyers at will receive the limited ‘Loser Edition’ of the album on coloured vinyl while supplies last at UK indie stores.
The Afghan Whigs tour the UK in July...
Jul. 15 - London, UK - Electric Ballroom (SOLD OUT) Jul. 17 - Manchester, UK - Cathedral Jul. 18 - Glasgow, UK - O2 ABC Jul. 19 - Suffolk, UK - Latitude Festival