Music Review: Clutch get heavy again on 'Earth Rocker'

Clutch, "Earth Rocker" (Weathermaker Music)

Hallelujah.

Clutch, the hard-touring Maryland band with an endless supply of guitar riffs, is back on the righteous path of heavy rock after an ill-advised foray into bluesy territory. Singer Neil Fallon's growl is ho-hum when it croons over a Hammond B3. But it sounds just right when he's howling at the moon, as on the new demented party anthem, "The Wolf Man Kindly Requests ..."

"Earth Rocker" is Clutch's hardest-hitting album in a while, and it's full of Fallon's occasionally inscrutable, fantastical sci-fi themes. There are references to Guttenberg, the Large Hadron Collider and the medieval weapon the halberd - and that's just in one song ("Unto the Breach").

"The Face" imagines a post-apocalyptic pop culture landscape where rock is dead and electric guitars have been cast into the sea. On "Cyborg Bette," our rock-star narrator falls for a robot, his "latest model." A welcome return to form.

Online:

Clutch at www.pro-rock.com