Face Stabber

Somewhere amongst the 80 head-splitting, vibe-chasing, cosmically grimy minutes of the Oh Sees’ 20-somethingth album, one might begin to wonder if chief Oh See John Dwyer will ever run out of steam. More than two decades into the band’s career, they—Dwyer and his rotating cast—still manage to find new wheat to harvest from the fields of Classic American Freakouts, from bite-sized thrash (“Heartworm,” “Gholü”) to multi-part suites of drug-den soul (the 15-minute “Scutum & Scorpius,” the 21-minute “Henchlock”) tailored to weirdos of all hair lengths. Behold a vision in which punk and prog didn’t just coexist, but spawned. Fun? Menacingly. Evil? Studiously.

On their absorbing and endearing new double album, John Dwyer's long-running psych-rock institution verges on self-indulgence for the first time.

Oh Sees' 2017 album Smote Reverser seemed at the time of its release to be just about as far as the band could push their combination psychedelic-metal-prog-jazz-garage sound before it might split into a million pieces.

The ever-metamorphosing Californian group release their 22nd LP, ramping up the prog-rock over a seriously ambitious runtime.