Pulling Teeth-Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions
Deathwish Inc.
March 31, 2009

I'm a bit torn with this release. On the one hand, I am head over heels crazy about the instrumentation. "Ritual" starts off with such a pounding yet emotional doom part that I could listen to over and over without getting sick of it, and there are many other parts like that. The instrumental parts are so good that it sometimes makes the vocal parts seem ordinary, as those are the times when they'll stick to straight hardcore or metal; nothing that really blows me away.

Pulling Teeth are nothing if not heavy. They are equal to waking up to a chain gang of hammers at both sides of the bed. They mesh the metal and the hardcore and the punk pretty well, and there are some excellent parts to sing along and/or fist pump to. The vocals are harsh, reminding me more of a grindcore vocalist than anything else, which is good. They just do such a superb job on the instrumental parts, slowing things down and using melodic guitar leads on top of a thundering rhythm section (including second guitar), making me want to listen to that all day.

I like what they are trying to do: add as much beauty as possible to a genre that is actually quite the opposite, and I think that this is a good start. This won't be an easy task to pull off, but I think Pulling Teeth can do it.

Written by: RF
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