Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins

Did the Jesus Lizard honestly ever need to make a new sound ever again? Probably not. Their noise rock legacy is cemented deep, and that heavy pummel they’ve cratered into the music landscape lives on in next generation torchbearers like Chat Pile, Pissed Jeans and KEN Mode today. They’re back, though, with a whole freakin’ album’s worth of new material — their first new music in 26 years, at that — so let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth. With Rack‘s lead single, “Hide & Seek”, the grungy alternative luminaries have got a few nasty new tricks up their sleeve while reminding us all while they’re still the noise rock GOATs. On first pass, it may seem kind of a head-tilt to hear them returning with one of their more palatable spins in being measured more like a chronic headache of powered-up punk riffs than the stewing, sludgy churn of yesteryear. David Yow’s morbid fairy tale of being chased by a witch who prefers a battle ax to a broom keeps things weird enough, though. “I cannot speak the languagе she insists I speak / She killеd her own daughter playing hide and seek.” Reunion rockers, take note: If you’re going to tempt your legacy’s fate again, make sure nothing’s lost in translation. Some wicked magic never hurts either…

Visualizer by: Displaced/Replaced

The Jesus Lizard’s Rack will be released September 13th on Ipecac Recordings.