Music Review: The Sounds of Animals Fighting - The Ocean and the Sun

The band members are the walrus, the lynx, the nightingale, and the skunk, and even though they are missing opposable thumbs, they play quite well. This is not the greatest CD ever, but it’s pretty good.

The Sounds of Animals Fighting play songs that sound like Queens of the Stone Age, with more talent, and mewithoutyou or Mars Volta. The songs on The Ocean and the Sun are dark rockers, that meander a bit, but they don’t follow any formula. That makes them unique and intelligent, but not largely memorable.

This is the 3rd CD from The Sounds of Animals Fighting, a noisy, experimental rock outfit with rotating members – usually denoted as the bear, the Ferret and other animals. They improvise, they make racket and they produce some decent stuff, but they also produce some garbage. The Ocean and the Sun is decent stuff though.

Released on Epitaph Records, it’s a 12 song CD that has some bouncy rockers, some mumbling love songs, and some trippy, jam-band tracks. It has a good variety. It sounds crisp and clear and there are a couple riffs that are sugary sweet. The vocals switch from male to female and are intense and engaging. The lyrics are interesting – centering around the power of mother nature, struggle, dichotomy, and stuff along those lines – but the CD is unsteady, and a lot the songs spiral out of control, or fail to capitalize on their promise.

The Ocean and the Sun is one of the only prog-rock CDs I’ve heard come out in a while. If you do like bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Pink Floyd, and King Crimson this is a CD that you may get into, but it will take a few listens. There are nuggets of greatness in there, and the sounds aren’t like crazy fighting but they aren’t like easily accessible rockers, they are in between. The Sounds of Animals Fighting is probably a band that is best enjoyed live – like Don Caballero – but you will probably never know for sure, because the band has only ever played four live shows.

Hear "The Ocean and the Sun" from The Sound of Animals Fighting here.