Riff Police! Pull Over! #153: Incubus Vs The Glasses Otter!

Giving their fifth studio album a title based on a folktale that Crows will gather and decide the capital fate of another Crow (which is where the term a “murder” of Crows, used to describe a group of Crows comes from), 2004 saw the fifth studio album “A Crow Left Of Murder” released by Alternative Metal funk brigade Incubus. Their first without original bass player Dirk Lance, it was recorded at Southern Tracks Recording in Atlanta, Georgia with producer Brendan O’Brien (Killswitch Engage, Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden), with the band playing live rather than recording each instrument separately to give it a more organic feel. Like their earlier work, it’s fast and energetic while also being surprisingly technical when you break it down with lyrical themes that express opinions that are both politically and socially aware and the title track itself is a prime example. So prime in fact that if you listen to “The Greek Mythology of John V” by The Glasses Otter from their EP “Asleep on the Carousel“, you can hear the effect Mike Einziger’s riff had on guitarist Nicholas Stephens, because if you strip away the tone and tuning differences, they’re pretty damn close.