Sam Sarah

Shock And Awe (2004)

Jordan Rogowski

As we're roughly halfway through 2005, the United States Of America stands at roughly 230 years of age. Young by comparison to most African and European nations, but already we've had our share of influential people, many of whom have been named Samuel. There's early colonial politician Samuel Adams, most noted for his fiery temper and resistance of British rule. There's famed novelist Samuel Clemens, known to most by his pseudonym, Mark Twain. Then there's possibly the most famous of Samuels, the baddest motherfucker on the planet, Samuel L. Jackson. Where does Sam Sarah fit into all this? Well, for one, it's no he, it's a they, and for two, their album Shock And Awe is about a 9 on Samuel L.'s scale of asskickery.

Sam Sarah are a very dynamic group of musicians, all bringing something special and something original to the fold. Ranging from long, dynamic instrumental passages, to emotive and passionate singing, to angular song structures and tremendous riffing, it all fits into a cohesive and moving package. While the songs are free-flowing and structurally all very different, the entire album carries a great uniformity to it. There's lots of effects pedals used on the guitars, but rather than overwhelm, those effects instead help to carry these songs, be that a light, melodic tone á la American Football, or a discordant, jangly progression. The songs can carry a bit of a high strung feel at times, but just as Blair Sehan of Knapsack so perfectly stated, "There is beauty in this tension."

"Deception Is Expected" is a prime showing of Sam Sarah at their more melodic, organic sounding stages of the album, before "I, The People" really puts those odd time signatures and fuzz-laden guitars to work. There can be coexistence between the two styles in one song, and that helps make things all the more
profound. Aside from guitar styles, no comparisons to song structure and composition will truly fit between Sam Sarah and any other artist. The mostly instrumental "Angelica Sushi" shows Sam Sarah's ability to kick the instrumentation into high gear, without losing an overall sense of chemistry between the band's
respective members. The production is flawless in that right, in which the drumming, bass, guitars and vocals all are able to fill their own specific niche, being individually noticed by the listener while engaging them in the greater overall scheme of the song.

Like any great movie, book, or performance, all the rising action has to culminate somewhere, and the bulk of the efforts won't be noticed without a strong closing, and the ten-minute "The Frozen Hands Of The Mechanic" does a truly incredible job of putting a lid on the album, but not before subjecting the listener to a journey that the previous 6 songs just couldn't hope to take you on. Starting right in with the fuzzy, distorted guitars and use of reverb, the song quickly subdues for Jeff Aymond's restrained but impassioned vocal approach. During this portion of the song, the guitars are noticeably more melodic, and seem to hint at something greater in the song to come. Towards the end, Aymond's cathartic, anguished screams come in as the tempo builds and builds, finally ending amidst some waves of feedback.

Sam Sarah's genre bending and style hopping can be a bit overwhelming at times, but the subtleties here speak as loud as the reverb; this is a tremendous release. Drenched in equal parts talent, rhythm, and emotion, Shock And Awe is potent enough to make a believer out of even the biggest mushroom cloud layin' mothafucka, mothafucka.