*1/2 GodheadSilo

SHARE THE FANTASY

(Sub Pop)

GodheadSilo are the loudest duo in rock: one bassist, one drummer, and, as they say, volume, volume, volume, almost all at bowel-shaking frequencies. On this album, their fourth, they've gone metal, or as metal as you can get without guitar. Getting heavy lets GodheadSilo show off what they can do -- their twitching, low-end riffing is impressively massive, and the harder they can hit, the better. But this also points up the band's chief weakness: an over-reliance on ironically distancing allusions toward other music. Share the Fantasy keeps underlining its detachment from its sources -- from the fake black-metal graphics of the cover to the silly between-song samples to the new-wave synth near the end of "Goin' Commando" to, most egregiously, a rocked-up but basically faithful cover of "In the Air Tonight" (yes, that one). There's no way to reclaim the song from its kitsch context. But it's also the best-written song on the album. Although GhS's own compositions get lots of room to rock, they aren't that interesting on their own: the album is big on style and empty at its center.

-- Douglas Wolk