Staff Reviews

The Afghan Whigs, Do to the Beast

Review by Alexander Tudor

It’d be damning with faint praise to say that Beast is a masterful record from a songwriter entering his third decade, and inaccurate to call this a comeback; in the Don't Look Back era, this is the proof it's possible to burn on without dying or fading away.»

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'Do to the Beast' is the first new album by The Afghan Whigs in over a decade and a half. Founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1988, the band has long stood out from its peers, with their savage, rapturous blend of hard rock, classic soul, and frontman Greg Dulli's searing obsessions. The new album serves as both a homecoming - it marks their return to Sub Pop, for whom the Whigs were the first signing from outside the label's Northwest base - and a glimpse into the future of one of the most acclaimed bands of the past thirty years. 'Do to the Beast' proves an appropriately feral title for one of the most intense, cathartic records of Dulli's entire career - one that adds fresh twists to The Afghan Whigs canon. On it, one finds the film noir storytelling of 'Black Love', the exuberance of '1965', the brutal introspection of 'Gentlemen', but rendered with a galvanized musical spirit and rhythmic heft that suggests transcendence and hope amidst the bloodletting.
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