About 25 years ago, the Cult decided that they were going to turn the punk/alternative crowd onto “classic rock”. While they were widely derided by most of the music press of the time, they did manage to increase their record sales immeasurably. The Afghan Whigs are also admirers of seventies’ guitar music, with band leader Greg Dulli previously stating that he wanted them to sound like a mix of the Band, the Temptations and Neil Young in Crazy Horse mode. While the Afghan Whigs may have achieved their artistic aim on Do to the Beast, the band’s first album since 1998’s 1965, it seems an unlikely vehicle to revive their fortunes.
Opening track, “Parked outside”, implies how the Jim Jones Revue might sound if they were infatuated with the Blue Oyster Cult rather than Jerry Lee Lewis. Big fat guitar chords and a strident tempo get things going well enough and also characterise second tune, “Matamoros”. After this, however, things go rapidly downhill. “Algiers” begins like something from Neil Young’s acoustic back catalogue but soon threatens to tip into a parody of Boston’s “More than a feeling”. “Lost in the woods” similarly shimmies towards soft rock territory, with plenty of yelling of “Sweet baybeee!”, while any video that might be made for “The Lottery” is just begging to feature either a wind machine or lots of long-shots of desert scenery. Do to the Beast is slightly revived by final tune, “These sticks”. This comes across in the same vein as Led Zeppelin’s take on “Babe, I’m gonna leave you” with added brass. However, it is not enough to justify the existence of this retro dullness.
Do to the Beast is basically Seventies and early Eighties flared-trousered, rawk music repackaged for a 21st-century indie/alt rock audience, already weaned on the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters and Wolfmother. Approach with caution.