The term 'thinking man's metal' has been thrown around for quite a while now and applied to a variety of bands, from Tool to Pain of Salvation to Isis. It's actually sort of demeaning, painting a scenario where if you name drop one of those bands, people think you're a well-read music aficionado but if you mention any love for Metallica or Slayer, they dismiss you as a violent neanderthal. Now I know there's a lot of metal out there that could be called stupid, but damn you if some artfag makes you feel guilty about listening to something you enjoy!

Ah, so do I grant rap and hip-hop the same benefit of doubt? As long as it's got a beat and groove you can bop your head to, all's good, right? Does it matter if the lyrics are usually generic, self-aggrandizing, compensatory drivel? Would I sound full of it if I clubbed Dälek as 'thinking man's hip-hop'?

Maybe I would, but even so, these guys seem focused on toning down the direct physical infectiousness of their music and bringing its cerebral nature to the forefront. MC Dälek flaunts his chops as a well-read dude right off the bat with song titles like Who Medgar Evers was..., and also, lyrics that go "We lost sight of how to use these mikes, what scripts we write, how to choose our fights..." clearly bemoan the shallow, superficial lyrical nature of hip-hop in general. To cap it off, his own capacity for catchy rhymes seems to be formidable.

Now, the sharp commentary's all good, but that's only one half of what makes Dälek unique. Traditionally, if you have good lyrics, you set up a stage where they get the spotlight. Here, the vocals are buried under a wall of sound, courtesy production man, The Oktopus. It's a thick soup with synth swells, chimes, distorted melody lines and other assorted sound effects adding to the cacophony, along with the thumping basslines and beats. Plus, that drum sound's got a nice fat sound to it, which elevates it up over those wussy synth-drum grooves. The overall effect isn't a sound that makes you want to shake your money-maker straight away (assuming you're all strippers, otherwise that makes no sense), but instead it's like strapping a concrete helmet on your skull and forcing you to sit back and take it all in.

This is practically hip-hop working over a backdrop of atmospheric drone, so shoegaze fans shouldn't find the transition too hard. Like most things 'post', this needed a few spins for me to appreciate, because at first listen, it sounded like one big mess. On repeat plays, there were more distinctive characteristics heard in each track. No Question is a great opener with its upbeat industrial groove and airy passages in between. Then there's a happy post-rock feel with lots of big space present in A Collection of Miserable Thoughts Laced with Wit, and We Lost Sight is also an upper, with its church-organ/windchime combo. Who Medgar Evans Was... is the lengthiest offering and probably the most experimental, with a long ambient session where they chip away at the tempo slowly till it slows to an absolute crawl. But my favourite has to be the title track, where aggro muddy distortion lines duke it out with dissonant synth work over some damn catchy rhymes. Heady stuff.

Gutter Tactics is Dälek's 5th proper studio album and my first exposure to the band. So while I'm not the position to comment on how the music has evolved since the band's inception, I'm well within rights to recommend this to anybody who considers themselves fairly broadminded about music in general. Like most bands that take risks and stick their necks out, these guys are relatively unknown, so here's hoping that changes in the future.

Label: Ipecac
Year of release: 2009