Tonic Immobility

Tomahawk – a band that have very much prided themselves on their messiness and incoherency – have made perhaps their most cogent record yet. [Apr 2021, p.64]

‘Tonic Immobility’ establishes a consistently immersive pull into a world that you don’t want to be in, but that you can’t quite escape.

This is an album that’s compelling and will leave you hanging onto your headphones to see what’s coming next.

If you liked the pound and grind of Tomahawk’s self-titled LP or 2003’s explosive Mit Gas, or, better yet, past work from Denison, there’s stuff to like here.

It’s a competent album, fun and succinct enough for a worthwhile playthrough but too full of yesterday’s novelty to shrug off the why here? why now? concerns destined to orbit any comeback record. Individual listeners will find their own ways to make peace with this, but I struggle to view it as more than a back-to-basics top-up from an act that had very little to prove. Blessed and cursed with a handful of the most talented names in rock, it’s equal parts a welcome return and a missed opportunity.