GNARCAT - FELINE SHRINE REVIEW

Delaware has stoner rockers, jam bands, and even some horror punk to spare. There are a few down-tuned, chug-driven projects floating around here, too, but none of them are narrated audiobook-style, describing death by (you guessed it) a pack of angry alley cats and violent hallucinations. No other musical soul on earth is doing it like Daniel R Gutierrez, the grandmaster behind Rosemary Tone Record's latest feature-length release.

Feline Shrine isn't feature-length in that it encompasses up two full-length vinyl records, but feature-length in the sense that this an album that serves as a film soundtrack - a complete narrative independent of any screen or visuals. If you're a fan of the musical storytelling of Twenty One Pilots, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, or Coheed & Cambria, Feline Shrine is a real standout in the concept album realm. 

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In a tight twenty minutes, Gnarcat takes the listener down a dark, sludgy rabbit hole. There's wah-pedal-laden lead guitars, crushing fuzz, and cavernous delays; a heaping portion of all the staples heavy psychedelic music lovers come to the table hungry for. While most stoner rock, doom metal, and other genres in the cluster rely heavily on Black Sabbath's Into The Void as the set-in-stone playbook for downtuned guitars, Gnarcat pulls as much from others new and old, such as Jimi Hendrix, Tool, Sleep, Fuzz, and others. The Feline Shrine is not strictly amp worship for its own sake, it takes time to tell a story and make twists and turns in overall tone. The final product is more of a downward spiral than a roller coaster ride. 

The last two tracks feature Gutierrez's frequent collaborator and album producer Austen Morgan on lead guitar, with the opening to the penultimate track "Hairball" kicking things up a notch with a vile distorted phaser guitar, fat bass, and thumping drums. "Hairball"s haze of distorted guitars momentarily clears for the introduction to the closer, "Death". This smashing loss of momentum hits like falling out a second-floor window, but the song never quite sounds like it's abandoned the filthy guitar sounds of the rest of the record. It's doomy, not just in terms of genre, but literally.