GLORYBOTS, Mad End

By now, Glorybots, the Seattle-based post-punk/alt rock superpower masterminded by the mad musical genius/sonic alchemist Jalal Andre, seem like old friends. In my all-aglow review of their 2023 opus (and third overall album) Radiation Skies, I made note that “when an indie band launches a career with a well-received album titled Dark Alien Pop, it sets up certain sonic expectations that might limit evolution.

Fortunately, as demonstrated over and over on the ten-track harsh blistering, super harmonic and surreally atmospheric power trip of their latest collection Mad End, Andre is always breaking fresh trippy ground and exploring fanciful new swirling, punked up energies. He throws us some wild, provocative song titles attached to amazeballs songs here - the throbbing, hard sizzling lead single “Apnea,” a dark propulsive immersion into a scorching sea of “Pain Rain,” the booming, brooding, industrial percussion heavy “True Love Feeds” and the dreamily plaintive, then explosive power ballad “Bag of Bones.”

Imagining what these must mean is perhaps more fun than dissecting lyrics that Andre didn’t distribute to those of us hard-wired to rave about his new songs anyway. Also of note, there’s no actual title track called Mad End, so let’s conjecture a possible dual meaning – these instant classics are the “mad end” of his current volcano of creativity and well, hell, doesn’t everything outside of cool fire like his music seem like we’re approaching the made effing end of the world?

Before digging into another fascinating promotional faux pas from Andre (dude can seriously do no wrong in my book, though!), here’s a few of my other faves from Mad End – the buoyant and soaring, hard-chugging “Be Fair” (featuring his otherworldly electric guitar solo insanity) and what is perhaps the set’s most melodic, hooky and singable jam, “Fade,” which showcases Andre’s vocal passion in a fit of desire like no other tune.

Now for the minor blip. In the original promo materials, it’s stated that Andre plays all the instruments, excluding Chris Newton (a beast on all the drums) and guest guitarist Ilya Krisa (who joined Glorybots on Radiation Skies) illuminating “Pain Rain” and “Levitate.” Andre has since corrected that to say he played every instrument on the album except drums and some backup by Krisa on those two songs. Newton, who also mixed, replaces Don Gunn, reflecting the ever-evolving supporting cast behind the leader. He and Newton are quite the tandem, and that makes Mad End a culminating of all things Glorybots and the unit’s most irresistible album ever.