Long Live＜Clear & Silver With Black Splatter Top Vinyl＞

On "Calvin Makenzie," the third track on the Chariot's fourth album, Long Live (all of the song titles are either people's names or abstractions like "The City" and "The Earth"), the typically harrowing hardcore heavy metal track suddenly gives way to a pleasant, sunny pop tune as if the band had been recording over an old tape by somebody else or someone had abruptly changed channels. The metal roar returns, but then disappears again in favor of the sunny pop at the end. Thus does Josh Scogin vary the sound of his spiritual/philosophical onslaught. He also likes to add a wordless choir (at the end of "The City") and cut to an equally unexpected piano interlude ("David De La Hoz"). And he doesn't waste time; like its predecessors, Long Live clocks in at only half an hour. In that time, however, Scogin has discoursed in his howling voice about the state of things as he sees it. There isn't anything specifically religious in his rants, except, perhaps, by implication, in terms of the exhortation to change the world and better one's behavior. When he repeats, "Disappointed, I know you are," many times at the end of "Evan Perks," he may be speaking to his God, but that's not clear. Surely, his followers will not be disappointed that he is continuing to follow his muse, even to the edge of incoherence. ~ William Ruhlmann