QotSA: Villains

Just four years have passed since Like Clockwork (2013), Josh Homme and company, at the climax of their career have decided to make an unexpected jump. Josh Homme does not need to be told how he has to do things to get what he wants. If he’s looking for a sound that only exists in his head, he will find it in one form or another, resulting in its more balanced version, an evolutionary leap. In advance, the sound that Queens Of The Stone Age already had in mind and shaped (and taking into account that some songs included here, were past compositions), is very similar to "The Way You Used To Do."

All of the above, does not mean that Villains is exempt of the characteristics guitars of the band. "Domesticated Animals" makes it clear by getting up from that introductory lethargy, awake to throw intricate knots as riffs between a crushing rhythm and a dynamic chorus. Nevertheless, it is possible to emphasize that Like Clockwork became a devotee of ballads like "Fortress" or "Hideaway", crossing with the sufficient sensitivity and hardening just enough to arrive at its end. It returns to be accelerated at will with "Head Like A Haunted House", as in some points of Lullabies To Paralyze but this time better polished. On the other hand "Un-Reborn Again" allows us to see the importance of the production by how they manage to give a heaviness to the song that it imposes, even when it does not feel so loaded. And for the synthesizers of all kinds, they camouflage with the strings most of the time, being a fundamental part of the track.

Although many fans claim from Like Clockwork to the band of the past, even those Them Crooked Vultures, they return in measure with "The Evil Has Landed" a passage of more than six minutes with all its virtues of guitar; corrosive slides and intrepid riffs, agility, spasms and intelligent changes of rhythm, power and avalanche in its last seconds. Also, "Villains Of Circumstance" could not be less; past that penumbra that takes almost half a time to reveal, with a memorable and defining lines, a story of love at a distance, by somewhat cruel situations in a world full of villains of the circumstance.

A short but sufficient album. Villains' nine tracks feature the still-unexplored new concerns of some Queens Of The Stone Age veterans but who are well supported by the experience of a flawless career, despite the changes of members. There is a clear revitalizing power in this album that will probably mark a before and after.

Thank you.