Why Should I – Turn It Off
Why Should I – Turn It Off
Label: Independent Release
Release Date: 30/10/26
Review by Jon Deax
7.5/10
If you like Baroness, Acid King, early Sepultura or Prong, get this. If you don’t, still turn off whatever you’re scrolling and go and make something.
Two individuals leave the San Francisco Bay Area for central Ohio in 2021, and the start of a very particular kind of midlife crisis begins. People who do something like that generally start playing golf. Mark Lamb, the guitarist from Acid King and Scorched Earth Policy, called up his bandmate from back in the day Scott Sprague, and asked him if he would like to make music down in the basement. Scott didn’t question why they were even in Ohio; he said yes. Back in their younger days, Mark and Scott were in a thrash band called Die Hard, so jam sessions ensued till an album got produced. It’s called Turn It Off, and the band is called WHY SHOULD I, with not one vocal on it.
You’re probably thinking, “Oh great, instrumental metal, a guitar solo with no escape.” With no individual up front whining about dragons and an ex, all the guitar riffs and drum beats have free rein in the entire room. It’s almost like watching a silent movie and getting to the point of tears halfway through the performance.
The album has eight tracks on it, deliberately so. It’s imitating the template for success set by such albums as Heaven and Hell, The Number of the Beast, and Ride the Lightning, and it takes some audacity for a band to do so. Their philosophy is that rock music, whether good or bad, thrives or dies by its riffs and drums, and no one would ever dare to disagree with that. The message printed on the cover states that one should ignore any outside voices, believe one’s mind only, produce more and consume less. Well, fair enough, but chances are that it’ll be read through the phone that vibrates in one’s pocket anyway. Put the phone aside.
“21st Century Dullard” is an epic track, reminiscent of a wardrobe crashing down a flight of stairs. At least until it ceases to remain a wardrobe, transforming itself into something new. Just about a minute into it, you’ll be wondering how nobody started singing yet, when there was no need for anyone to do so.
It’s clear from this that this was recorded in a basement by two people who were having the time of their lives. “You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wrong” should definitely be a T-shirt for all uncles at weddings to wear. Close your eyes when listening to the song, and it just takes you away. “Intensities In Tent Cities” has amazing high guitar leads and layers and has a space feeling, whereas “Creatures And Their Weaponry” is the one where you just feel free and want to rock. Now, this is that part in a review when you should really pick out at least one thing which you didn’t like about an album, but you just can’t do it.
The peculiar thing is that a song without words will always be telling you something. It doesn’t give you a story. It gives you a chance to invent your own, and at the end of the day you own it. Less expensive than therapy, and what you get in return for your time and effort is a good record. By the time the track “The Hell You Say” gets going, it will occur to you that the silences carry as much meaning as the music. To be making silences speak so loud when making an album with a message about silence is a little arrogant, but they deserve it. When it ends, the only thing you would love to do is play it again.
It sounds amazing. They recorded the album on their own in their respective basements before sending it for mastering to Juan Urteaga, a mixer for Exodus and Testament. No sound on this album has been smoothed to perfection. The drums thud, and there is humming of amplifiers, just how the real music should sound. The Ohio artist, Steven Fisher, who made the cover and logo, has an open hostility toward the commercialized art world.
TRACKLISTING:
01. 21st Century Dullard
02. You Don’t Have To Be Old To Be Wrong
03. AxeFoot
04. Intensities In Tent Cities
05. Blubber Hook
06. Creatures And Their Weaponry
07. Hyena Chatter
08. The Hell You Say
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