A little more than two years have passed since Good Tiger’s full-length debut, ‘A Head Full Of Moonlight’. With the arrival of follow-up, ‘We Will All Be Gone’, the group are sure to attract new attention, but they are hardly newcomers to the scene themselves. Vocalist Elliot Coleman was a one-time member of Tesseract, while guitarists Derya Nagle and Joaquin Ardiles may be familiar from their time in The Safety Fire.
This pedigree was apparent in ‘A Head Full Of Moonlight’, which presented a well-rounded, muscular brand of metal and alt-rock that built solid foundations for the band. ‘We Will All Be Gone’ does not so much progress on its blueprint as reinforces it. Which isn’t entirely a good thing. As although solid, the ideas up to this point have been little more than that.
When ‘The Devil Thinks I’m Sinking’ eventually clatters in after an overly long intro, the signs are positive. Nagle and Ardiles create a sonic wall while Coleman’s abilities are immediately clear, his range impressive. Despite this, there is a nagging plainness to the melodies and a lack of bite that may have been eradicated through inclusion of screams, present in earlier work but absent from these ten songs.
Memorable moments are thin on the ground, and when they do come in the shape of ‘Float On’’s hook and the snaking riff of ‘Grip Shoes’, they remain frustratingly brief and unexpanded upon. One of the most engaging tracks, ‘Cherry Lemon’, is a 110-second instrumental given life by over-the-top, jarring drums.
Mediocrity consistently prevails; after a lively opening the album never lives up to that early promise. If harnessed correctly, it is certainly conceivable that this potential will develop on future work.
The technical abilities of Good Tiger are never in doubt on ‘We Will All Be Gone’, but the record is let down by a glaring lack of good songs and an apparent shortage of inspiration. Not really worth a look past the opening two tracks.
2.5/5
‘We Will All Be Gone’ by Good Tiger is out now on Blacklight Media/Metal Blade Records.
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Words by Peter Stewart (@PeteStew_)
