Track Listing

1. board up the house
2. endless teeth
3. things don't look good
4. recursion
5. i won't come back alive
6. city on a hill
7. the whips blow back
8. colony collapse
9. the feast
10. ergot
11. relief

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75872 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
The enigmatic trio known as GENGHIS TRON weave an ocean-sized orchestra from just a few instruments and machines. On GT's vivid palette of sound and texture, giant riffs and frenetic beats make perfect sense next to haunting vocal melodies and moments of subtle beauty. In their hands, machines pulse and polar opposites fit together seamlessly. The bands long-awaited Relapse debut 'Board Up the House' spills over with eleven tracks combining the extremes of modern rock music into a totally unique, completely unforgettable album experience unlike any other. 'Board Up the House' is really the sound of the future colliding with the present with enough force to tattoo itself forever upon the mind.

From the Artist
Recommended If You Like: BLOOD BROTHERS, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, GIRL TALK, HELLA, The LOCUST, BOREDOMS, BATTLES, DFA1979, MELT BANANA

About the Artist
Genghis Tron want to eat your brains.

Well, maybe they don't, but they do want to at least poke at it a little. Their new album `Board Up The House', evokes vivid emotional responses from panic to relief, hope to despair, and just about everything in between. And the best way to manipulate moods in such a way is to manipulate sounds, which is what Genghis Tron does best.

Forming four short years ago in Poughkeepsie, New York, Genghis Tron - Mookie Singerman (vocals), Michael Sochynsky (keyboards), and Hamilton Jordan (guitars) - set out to create something left-of-center, and like their musical tastes, that couldn't be easily pinned down. With Singerman's varied vocals, Sochynsky's keyboard wizardry turning blips and beeps into pulsating rhythms, beats, and ambient backdrops, and Jordan's fret-board shredding and stream of memorable riffs, Genghis Tron created something that can only be described as new and totally unique.

Genghis Tron began their first substantial touring on the heels of their first demo and subsequent EP `Cloak of Love' (Crucial Blast, 2005), gigging with a range of diverse bands from Dan Deacon to Daughters, Yip, Yip to Death From Above 1979, Usaisamonster to Magrudergrind, and everything in between.

The writing evolved slowly but morphed into what would become 2006's Kurt Ballou-produced `Dead Mountain Mouth', their first full-length album. `Dead Mountain Mouth''s darker, more dense approach was lauded by the international press (AP, Rock Sound, Decibel, and more) and stoked by the bands ever-expanding touring across the North America and the UK

In early `07, the band signed a deal with Relapse Records (after over a year of conversation between the band and label) and relocated to Philadelphia to begin working on `Board Up The House'. The band broke from writing only for choice tour opportunities; a US Tour with Kylesa, dates with Pig Destroyer, Rob Crow, The Red Chord, and appearances at several festivals including SXSW.

Genghis Tron's painstaking year of write-and-tour, write-and-tour concluded when they returned to Ballou's God City Studio in the fall to record `Board Up The House'. The album's title track has been posted on the band's MySpace page (MySpace.com/GenghisTron) to serve as a preview until the album sees its international release in February 2008.

Genghis Tron have currently wrapped up a tour with The Dillinger Escape Plan, and have unveiled extensive world tour plans. So if you should see three rabid-looking figures off in the distance one of these dark winter nights, you may want to prepare to `Board Up The House'.

Customer Reviews

Destructive Formula Advanced and Bettered
A crazily ticking metronome with an odd beat opens up 2008's Board Up the House. It serves as a good expectation of what's about to come; an ungainly mixture of grind's menace and speed, Coil-like electronic weirdness, and a more advanced sense of space and depth. The vocals come in two shapes, one being a paralyzing screech that reminds you A LOT like Jacob Bannon, and the other is a somewhat robotic and haunting clean vox full of sad and creepy melody. The drums feel less mechanical, more human. Toolkit from Hell I think.

"Board Up the House" begins the album with an extended statement of what's to come. Everything is more integrated, looser while fitting more ingeniously with each riff/keyboard lead. The all out balls to the wall destruction isn't as haywire as before, but song's flow is incredible.

Next comes the blasting cybergrind of "Endless Teeth" and leads the way to "Things Don't Look Good" This gives you the first peak at GT's way with melody. An ambient piece noodles around until "I Won't Come Back Alive." This song is more of the same formula, but with the same sense of epic approach. And when you spark up the joint you'll realize this album is a lot more doom-y and trippy than any band mashing such parts together ever should. "City on a Hill" is similar to the title track from Dead Mountain Mouth, and the next two songs continue in similar fashion.

Then, as if to let you know this band is still as heavy as the last two albums, Greg Puciato from the Dillinger Escape Plan pops in to drop a bomb. "The Feast" is one of the most jarring, searing, and face-destroying pieces GT has done. A slight interlude goes on before the last track arrives. At over 10 minutes, "Relief" winds it's grand scope with a doom atmosphere convincingly, the repetitive voyage comes out as a beauty of an ending to a brilliant album.

As with any Genghis Tron release, it will take repeated listens for everything to sink in. First few listens feels like an impenetrable blast of power, but it will reveal itself. And once it does, you'll be left enjoying one of the best experimental metal albums of 2008.

GT's "Rubber Soul"
I pre-ordered this CD and have been loving it every since it came out. It shows a fair amount of maturity over GT's previous efforts. The boys have found a way to give coherence to the chaos, and rather than that being a bad thing, it comes out sounding like they've hit their stride. This album sounds smart, layered and finished.

In my opinion, this album sounds more 'heavy metal' than their previous efforts. There are moments on the cd that sound like a garden variety metal band. Thankfully these moments don't last more than a few seconds, and it generally adds to the 'thickness' of the sound rather than sounding generic. I think this mostly comes from the new drum sound (Drumkit From Hell, maybe?) and the new guitar amp. Take that as you will, but either way I think this album has cemented GT's place as America's greatest band and puts them among the most important groups of artists working in any media. Support these guys. I don't give 5 star reviews very often.

Insanity Exchanged for the Sake of Composition
With the release of 2006's "Dead Mountain Mouth", Genghis Tron established themselves as one of the more unique experimental "noise" bands, alongside the likes of Ephel Duath and Dillinger Escape Plan. Combining sporadic blasts of atonal fury with darker, atmospheric electronica, "Dead Mountain Mouth" was a contrasting and masterfully crafted release.

With 2008's "Board up the House", Genghis Tron lean in another direction. Though the basic elements are still intact, in "Board up the House", Genghis have decided to take themselves a bit more seriously. The electronica and noise sections don't contrast as much as they compliment each other. Rather than shocking the listener with the illogical wedding of straightforward 4/4 synth sections and blast beats, Genghis Tron seem to mix them together, displaying a new dimension of careful compositional efforts. Consequently, the "noise" sections have been "watered down" a bit to better fit its' counterpart.

Overall, "Board up the House" is much more accomplished than any preceding Genghis Tron effort. However, if the listener is particularly partial to the bizarre contrasting fury of "Dead Mountain Mouth", he or she should be warned that it still exists, though it exists to a lesser extent.