Secret Wars - Oneida
Metascore
83 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 17
  2. Negative: 1 out of 17
  1. 100
    They channel experimental noise, acid-drenched riffs, and live-show spontaneity into a record of brilliantly crafted nuggets of lysergic rock that is easily their most consistent effort to date.
  2. This bracing sixth full-length funnels the frenzy into more easily digestible bites. [6 Feb 2004, p.140]
  3. The sound is huge and intimate all at once; the songs have hooks and staying power.
  4. A frenetic, opaque masterpiece that ranks in the upper echelons of post-rock primacy. [Apr 2004, p.96]
  5. These are eight rip-roaring, drag racing anthems mashed together with blood cakes and shards of bone.
  6. Seriously fucked-up and seriously stunning.
  7. Secret Wars is more than a good album. It's an incredible experience, taking you out of your daily life into a mysterious and mind-changing space.
  8. Secret Wars feels like a keeper, like an album I’ll pull out and play and still love ten years from now.
  9. 80
    This time there's noticeably less fuzz and extraneous squall piled on top. [Feb 2004, p.92]
  10. 80
    Theirs is a maniacal mish-mash of seemingly incompatible musical styles--Krautrock, psychedelia, no-wave, prog, synth-pop, '70s stoner rock and punk--wrought from a deeply felt, genre-leaping love of challenge. [Feb 2004, p.80]
  11. A schizophrenic mess of maypole folk and motorik drive.
  12. Secret Wars clamors like past Oneida albums dating back to 1997, but it also shows a band mellowing out without losing its charge.
  13. All in all, expertly wobbling prog metal, constructed out of as few chords as possible.
  14. Secret Wars is the first step toward the combination of Oneida's monolithic psych-rock and the numbing riff iteration they've spent so long deriving.
  15. 70
    ‘Secret Wars’ is an engaging 40 minutes; a haphazard, likely to spontaneously combust at any moment 40 minutes to be sure, but that was the ethic that spawned rock ‘n’ roll in the first place and in these hands there’s plenty of life in it yet.
  16. They actually sound like they've elected to live in a cocoon full of aromatic candles, a huge collection of musty records, some drugs, some books, and a collection of mid eighties Peel sessions alphabetically labelled on TDK C90s.
  17. Secret Wars is a sobering demonstration of what repetition can do in the wrong hands, as the Brooklyn trio funnel the most endurance-testing excesses of Suicide, Can, Sonic Youth and stoner rock into a joyless, oppressive piece of work.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. daves
    8
    One helluva pysch-rock noise as you could wish for. ideal for fans of Comets On Fire and ilk.
  2. BobbyG
    9
    I don't remember listening something so heavy and yet melodic at he same time.