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Aug 17, 2018Smote Reverser is undeniably an Oh Sees record, with all 20 years of the band's history coming through every note played and sung, but it feels like a huge step into something new that's sure to be just as exciting and unpredictable.
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Aug 22, 2018It’s cosmic, it’s mythic, it’s sprawling, it’s so acid-jazz-meets prog-rock that the garage-psych label seems like a flaccid insult at this point. John Dwyer doesn’t care about how many albums they’ve made, John Dwyer doesn’t care that his band has been blowing people’s minds for 20 years, John Dwyer cares about making the damn music.
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Aug 17, 2018Smote Reverser, the group’s 21st album, picks up the proggy, kraut-flavored vibes of 2017’s Orc and pushes even further into the cosmos. ... The longer Oh Sees go, the more wicked they get.
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The WireOct 16, 2018A roaring return to a full band sound featuring twin drums, electric bass and keyboards. The secret ingredient that makes it such a blast, though, is an unabashed injection of prog pomposity. [Nov 2018, p.62]
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Classic Rock MagazineAug 24, 2018Dwyer has led us into yet another musical sphere, one that's proggier, perplexing and ripe for exploration. [Sep 2018, p.89]
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Aug 24, 2018Sprawling, magnificent, dangerous and fantastical; this beast is--however extraordinary--an apt representation of the 11-song extravaganza it adorns here.
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Aug 17, 2018By the time of Smote Reverser's finale 'Beat Quest', it's plain difficult to not be impressed by this insanely talented band yet again--may their reign long continue.
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Aug 17, 2018Loud, hypnotic, vitriolic solos, mordant melodies with biting lyrics. It’s everything we’ve come to expect.
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Aug 15, 2018Less thematic or cohesive than other records, Smote Reverser is, quite deliberately, a record that sounds like an endless stream-of-consciousness, with no underlying nucleus that pulls it all together. Any of these tracks, each so distinct from the others, could potentially hold the charm of the record.
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UncutAug 10, 2018This is mature work. It's confident in what it is--and as seems likely, what it will turn into next. [Sep 2018, p.27]
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Q MagazineAug 10, 2018A career-best mind-melter. [Sep 2018, p.117]
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Aug 10, 2018There’s enough going on in the grooves of Smote Reverser to satisfy your psych and/or prog urges for the foreseeable future, let alone in the few months it’ll take Dwyer to follow it up.
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Aug 23, 2018Like Orc before it, Smote Reverser can’t help but lose some of its power as it approaches the hour-long mark. ... But by that point, Oh Sees have put forth more than enough Progasaurus gusto to rightfully earn their capes.
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Aug 24, 2018Like last year’s Orc, their 21st album (and second with their current lineup) spills off into other parts of the Sixties and Seventies.
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Aug 23, 2018Smote Reverser has a strange sense of uncertainty. While Dwyer hasn’t veered away from his band’s unmistakable proggy garage rock sound, he doesn’t feel as invigorated as usual. The multiple flavors of Oh Sees are swirled together, and it ends up a bit diluted.
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Aug 20, 2018As it is, it’s good, but not as consistently great as we’ve come to expect from him.
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MojoAug 10, 2018Occasionally, the album threatens to go Spinal Tap-ish. ... But when Dwyer steeps the prog in garage frenzy, the pot boils. [Sep 2018, p.92]
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Aug 14, 2018By the album’s end, they seem to be stuck in a cul-de-sac. The next album, one hopes, will come along soon and help them out.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 24 out of 27
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Mixed: 0 out of 27
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Negative: 3 out of 27
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Aug 20, 2018
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Aug 19, 2018
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Aug 25, 2018I agree with the previous reviews, this is fantastic. This is one of their best albums, I think.