Pulling Teeth – Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions

pt-pdpi

It says very little about my creativity to start off by describing an album as “amazing” in the introductory sentence. Oh hey look, I just did. Yes, Pulling Teeth‘s new effort – and fucking awesome effort at that – is Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions, a five track doom-infused hardcore record that manages to redefine the band and revolutionize the hardcore genre in one holographic package.

While 2008 was one of the best years hardcore has seen in awhile, it was mostly filled with bands pushing the limits of the ‘modern hardcore’ homage. Don’t get me wrong, my end of year list for the year was filled with fantastic efforts from bands like Trap Them (who, let’s be honest, do a lot more than hardcore), Trash Talk, Ceremony, Blackisted, etc, etc, but none of them flipped the genre on it’s ugly little head. Pulling Teeth has.

The album starts off with “Ritual”, a number that starts off with the pace of a funeral doom record (with keys!) and progresses into a fully Slayer-ized hardcore track (complete with a Kerry King-esque guitar solo!). The faster Pulling Teeth is further exemplified with “Unsatisfied”, which is a definite head mover. “Bloodwolves” is like “Ritual” in reverse – it starts off with the thrashiness which leads into a brilliant chord progression and ‘emotional’ guitar solo. ”Paranoid Delusions” is the first of two title tracks, and is a perfect transition track from the rest of the album into the finale. The album finishes with the second-half title track “Paradise Illusions” – a track full of weird shit you will never expect to hear on a Pulling Teeth album until hearing this album. What I’m trying to say is that it is nine-minutes of kick-assery without being ‘brutal’ the whole way through (although after six-minutes it gets nice and doomy).

Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions is an album that shows a hardcore band that can do much more than play four chords and say a lot more than “fuck you”. Pulling Teeth is responsible for an early contender for year-end AOTY honours. A must hear.

(8.6/10)

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