The hard rock, punk, psychedelic, alternative rock band Incubus has done it again. With its sixth album release hitting shelves Nov. 28, “Light Grenades” comes out with great anticipation.
The launch of the new album is also a kick start to the upcoming tour that will be coming to our area Feb.11 at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. This tour is highly anticipated for Incubus fans considering it is its first North American tour in over two years.
“Light Grenades” opens up with “Quicksand,” a slow melodic poem. It is a great way to start off the record: deep and meaningful. This song is a slower pace, yet it still carries the psychedelic Incubus vibe.
Next on the record is “A Kiss to Send Us Off.” This jumps right out with the hard-rocking Incubus sound. This is a more upbeat track that carries out the superb vocals of lead singer Brandon Boyd. In this track, you can also hear backup vocals of bass player Ben Kenney, one of the more recent members of the group.
After original bassist Alex Katunich left the band in 2002, because of differences with the other members of the band, Kenney was quickly added to the Incubus lineup.
“Dig” is next on the album. This track has a more mellow tune. With Boyd’s vocals and lovely guitar riffs of guitarist Mike Einziger, you can tell these guys just flow together and make great music. Band members Boyd, Einziger and drummer Jose Pasillas have been friends since elementary school growing up in Calabasas, Calif.
Next on the album is the band’s most recent single, “Anna Molly.” There isn’t any alternative radio station right now you can turn on and not hear this track. Chris Kilmore, the final member of the band, adds to this track with completing the Incubus sound while playing organ, piano, mellotron, samples and decks. This new single gives you a preview of the Incubus sound on the record. But still, it is the psychedelic sound of rocking that we all know and love.
“Love Hurts,” the next song on the track, slows it down again and gets into your emotions with lyrics such as “Sometimes when I’m alone, I wonder/Is there a spell that I am under/Keeping me from seeing the real thing?/Love hurts…”
Next is the title of the album, “Light Grenades,” opening with an impressive guitar riff and familiar Incubus hard drumbeats. This song is full of energy and excitement for the new album.
“Earth to Bella (Part 1)” is the next track on the album. This is another Boyd ballad. Incubus slows it down and has a nice hard-rocking break-in between lyrics. It’s musically a fantastic song with all kinds of different sounds and energy filling the speakers.
Next, the record contains amazing songs such as “Oil and Water,” “Diamonds and Coal,” “Rogues” and “Paper Shoes.” These songs release the energy and emotion that Incubus contains. Incubus strives musically to create a different sound by using many different types of instruments, both in the studio and for live performances, to get those wonderful psychedelic rock sounds portrayed in its albums.
Incubus finishes up the album with two fantastic tracks, “Pendulous Threads,” one of the longest tracks on the album, and “Earth to Bella (Part 2).”
The new record sounds most like Incubus’ most recent “A Crow Left of The Murder” (2004) before Incubus had two very successful albums, “Make Yourself” (1999) and “Morning View” (2001).
Incubus has been together since 1991, and its first album release, “Fungus Amongus” (1995) and second album “S.C.I.E.N.C.E.” (1997) showed us just what Incubus was all about. You can hear some of that old school Incubus leaking back into these tracks on “Light Grenades” even now in 2006.
