“Lights are off and all the exits are closed, he’s become the thing he fears the most”
To define Twelve Foot Ninja in words would be reductionist. I’ve been enamoured with their sporadic, genre-hopping chops since I discovered them almost half a decade ago. Stumbling upon the music for single “One Hand Killing” entirely by accident, it was clear from the very moment I discovered the group that there was just something else going on with them. Harking back to a very Mr. Bungle-esque 90s funk metal vibe, combined with the trappings of modern progressive metal and djent, all bookended by the strangest of genre-bends into the worlds of jazz, reggae, dub and more. Putting them into words is not only reductionist, but futile, as there are only many tags you can assign to something before you start asking “okay, so what don’t these guys do?”
Much to my dismay, around the time I discovered them would mark the start of an almost five-year drought of new music from the band. Now, given the complexity and uniqueness of their music, and especially given their almost entirely independent nature, it’s only natural that these things will take time. However, I was (and still am) so hooked on their sound that I would’ve killed for more music back then.
Luckily, I held off from committing any heinous acts of violence in the name of their genre-averse wonders, and stayed patient. Now, here we are a full five years on since 2016’s Outlier with Vengeance, an album that, due to the band’s very nature, would be hard to gauge any expectations whatsoever for. In spite of that, I have been intensely excited for new music from the group since the allusion to a brand new album from the group all the way back in 2019.
Opener “Start The Fire” shows that Twelve Foot Ninja are here to have fun, but they aren’t here to play. Featuring an almost Nine Inch Nails-esque instrumental in its verse, laden with tasteful synths and 808s, this is a track that commands your attention from the jump. Its sublime bridge is easily one of my favourite passages this band has ever penned, too, and while relatively being one of the most reserved moments across the entire record, the gorgeous vocal melody leading back into the track’s constrastingly punchy chorus and final crushing breakdown serve all serve to create one of the most engaging tracks on Vengeance. Admittedly, this one took a few spins to grow on me when it was released as a single, but it’s slowly become one of the strongest tracks on the record for me.
Second track and lead single “Long Way Home” continues to show the band at their very strongest, featuring a bombastic and bouncy chorus, with a hilariously contrasting vocal trade-off between vocalist Nik Barker’s distinctive, gritty style and guitarist/backing vocalist Rohan Hayes’ light, rapid pace backing vocals. I felt this was a fantastic introduction to this brand new era of Twelve Foot Ninja when it released earlier this year, and my feelings remain, as it too remains as one of my favourite tracks this band have ever crafted.
Fourth track and album highlight “IDK” demonstrates the group’s willingness to venture even further into the unknown. Dabbling in an almost Hall & Oates 80s new wave sound, punctuated by brief glimpses of brutal blast beats and screamed vocals. It’s a genre-bending rollercoaster of a track, and one that, much like “Long Way Home“, serves as one of my favourites this band has ever penned due to its sporadic (even by their standards) and effortlessly jumps and blends between seemingly impossibly contrasting genres.
Mid-album track “Culture War” may be the most awe-inspiring track of all here. While still possessing the essential genre-hopping found in almost any Twelve Foot Ninja track, make no mistake, this is a brutally heavy tune. Being the first track in the group’s history to have the majority of its runtime populated by unclean vocals, Barker lays down some seriously fierce growls over some of the heaviest instrumental work I’ve heard from this band thus far. From its rapid-pace, almost metalcore-esque verses to its herta-laden breakdown sections (featuring some outright godly drum work from Shane Russ), it’s truly the one moment on the album I was totally blindsided by. You come to expect a certain level of unexpectedness from a band like this, but this took me by surprise like no other track here. Just fucking bonkers.
In contrast, late-album highlight “Over And Out”, featuring Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmayluk, perfectly demonstrates the band’s ability to craft infectious, fun hooks within these strange, genre-defiant bangers. The vocal interplay between Barker and Shmayluk here, trading off and harmonizing throughout almost the entire song is truly something to behold. Further, the riff work on display here from group mastermind Stevic MacKay is easily some of my favourite across the entire record. Featuring more reserved guitar work in the verses before exploding into djenty goodness in the track’s chorus and bridge sections, there’s beauty in the simplicity of much of it.
Final track “Tangled” impresses further, closing Vengeance out with a cinematic and outright gorgeous last hurrah. Barker‘s vocals here feel especially emotive when paired with the light orchestral strings and brilliantly composed acoustic arrangements here. The guitar work here especially stands out, with Hayes‘ distinctive finger-picking style lending the song a mesmerizing energy leading into the track’s final planet-sized chorus. Somehow equally the most straightforward, yet one of the most gripping tracks in Twelve Foot Ninja‘s catalogue, “Tangled” is a masterfully juxtapositional closer for an album such as this.
With Vengeance, Twelve Foot Ninja have clearly refined their unabashed strangeness down to a science. For as unpredictable and bombastic as it is through its 36-minute runtime, it seems that over time Twelve Foot Ninja have perfected the art of genre-hopping, and that is no better exemplified than in those 36 minutes with Vengeance. A heavier affair overall, but one that still dabbles boldly and effortlessly into countless directions; including 80s new wave and metalcore alongside the typical djent, funk, jazz and dub blends – the question is no longer “what don’t these guys do?”, it is now “what can’t these guys do?”
Vengeance will be available next Friday, October 15th via self-release through Volkanik, and you can pre-order the album here.
9/10