Man boobs, magic mushrooms and mythical picks of destiny? It can only be power metal duo Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D.
Yep, the two generously proportioned gods of rock and creators of such family classics as ‘Tribute’ and ‘Fuck Her Gently’ have returned from the depths of hell with the soundtrack to their so called ass kicking flick The Pick of Destiny.
Produced by the Dust Brothers’ John King (Beastie Boys, Beck), the album features guest performances from Dave Grohl on drums, John Konesky on guitar and John Spiker on bass, as well as Meatloaf and Ronnie James Dio.
And you may want to lock up your daughters and any small animals come December because Black and Gass plan to rock the very foundations of the UK with a series of concert dates in support of the movie and soundtrack.
They say:
The Independent: “A tedious, titter free experience.”
The Guardian: “It’s official, then: heavy metal is still hilarious.”
We say:
It begins, as an album of this nature should, in bad taste with ‘Kickapoo’. An acoustic guitar performs gymnastics, a cymbal crashes, and then Black cuts in, alluding to his character’s Christian upbringing, “A long ass fucking time ago in a town called Kickapoo/There lived a humble family religious through and through.”
At the midway point, after more fiery profanity (seriously, Jeff Bridges’ the Dude has got nothing on Black here) and acoustic sorcery courtesy of Gass, the song morphs into a pastiche of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Brown Sugar’, soaked in sax and cocksure lick awesomeness, but somehow fails to deliver the killer blow, which is a common occurrence throughout.
Indeed, while Tenacious D’s trademark combination of Jethro Tull esque ‘70s folk metal and Beavis and Butthead lowbrow humour is occasionally a hell raising, laugh out loud experience, as a whole the 15 tracks here lack focus and struggle to flesh out the story (something about how Black met Gass, formed the band, and battled a demon for a magic plectrum) without a visual counterpart.
So it’s a rockin’ companion piece to the movie, then, but as a standalone offering it is hardly the pick of the litter. You’d be wise to take in the movie beforehand to avoid any narrative confusion.
Like this? Try these:
Jethro Tull – Songs from the Wood
Tenacious D – Tenacious D
Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters
RELEASED
13th Nov ‘06
LABEL
Sony BMG
POSTED...
Sun 12 Nov 2006 at 6:39pm
