Inhibitor is the second full-length record from Bay Area grungsters Wild Moth.
They really do a great job of capturing that mid-1990s feel. The guitars grind and jangle in layers, the
drums just thunder like crazy, and the bass is a driving riff that propels the songs along. The vocals are
muttered, never really overpowering the music, and often almost lost in the layers.
I hear hints of Nirvana; Screaming Trees; Dinosaur, Jr.; Matthew Sweet; Vanilla Trainwreck ... a
dozen 1990s bands i listened to and enjoyed, all distilled into one pure form here. And it's all really
catchy, which certainly helps.
The record starts off with the crunching Mirror, the guitars grinding mightily as the vocals
mope by. Gallery of Walls is angrier, like something from The Liverhearts.
Wild Moth give a brief instrumental interlude next, called Silver. When that fades out they
throw two truly epic rockers at us. Thinner starts with a slow grind of guitars and Grohl-like
drumming before settling into a smooth groove. This could have been a huge hit in 1996! Buried
is next, and it is a similar sort of tune, only janglier. This is a super catchy little song that just barrels
along.
Another instrumental break, called V, and then Wild Moth channel Nirvana. Hello, Star
kicks off with a riff that Cobain could have written, just a casual catchy under the weight of distortion
kind of thing. This song is messy and loud. Traces and Drain the next two tracks, and kind
of similar in that the distortion is ratcheted up to Goo-era Sonic Youth levels and the
songs tear by.
Finally, the record ends with You Found Out guitars see-sawing us to the end.
It's a lovely, rocking record. I like what Wild Moth are doing.
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