If you’re not already familiar, Iran Iran is one of those ArcTanGent Festival adjacent UK bands that have absolutely ripped since their inception. Their sound has always been big, and every record since 2013’s V has sounded more massive than the last.
But around the time of 2022’s Previously, on…, you could tell the band was working with their production / engineer Tom Peters to create something slightly more punitive. It was still hooky and anthemic as far as instrumental music goes, but it was hairier and scarier than before.
Not long ago now they dropped “Shinzu Abe Gun,” which was muscular and heavy, but also sort of towed the line in that it didn’t necessarily make it seem like the band had gone fully feral, at least not yet. But now that we have Dog Tramadol in full, we just might have to walk it back.
Don’t get us wrong, we loved that single, but in the context of the whole EP, it’s like a moment of respite. There are some suffocatingly throaty and visceral moments on Dog Tramadol, and what’s crazy is those are really the only words that come to mind, and we’re talking about the guitar. Yet again, Tom Peters and the band send uniquely thunderous yeti-calls through the amps and cabinets, and we are yet again transported to unknown spaces, all of them somewhat darker.
Luckily, Iran Iran haven’t lost any of their spontaneity along the way – they launch into dub-y little half-time waltzes, they hurdle into panic-chords, shock us withMeshuggah-esque interludes… and remember, it’s not a huge runtime for the record, which is actually our only gripe. That being said, listeners have little chance of escaping, and our advice is that they don’t even try. Even if Dog Tramadol gets heavier than the leaden anchor of a sunken container ship, it’s still very ArcTanGent adjacent and progressive, and if you’re anything like us, that’s what you call ‘the best of both worlds.’
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