[Ten Kens'] 'For Posterity' is freakishly heavy. Where the band's self-titled debut album was as blurred and chaotic as the kissing figures depicted on its sleeve, their new output sounds haunted. Its sweeping ghosts, however, are busy headbanging: these are mood pieces.
Every element of their composition is clearly deliberated. Every change of pace or shift in gear means something as opposed to fitting into some kind of clinical formula (quiet/loud, slow/fast).
To put it another way, 'For Posterity' is the thinking man's stoner rock: it's thrilling and brutal, but pumped full of the kind of smudged melodies beloved of Brian Wilson. However, any backward-looking aesthetic is stopped from being an album's worth of retro retreading by way of mysterious Americana, which always invokes tradition without ever really sounding dated.
On 'Insignificant Other' this is chillingly accessible, surfy, and fit for absurd dance routines. Meanwhile on 'Grassmaster', their savvy sweetness is replaced with screaming, serving as a prime example of how Ten Kens may not be everyone's cup of skull juice.
There aren't any modern production tweaks, so it's more Uncle Tupelo than Health, and thus probably unsuitable for the bloghouse geeks. Nonetheless, it's a vicious, rousing success. - 4/5 by Max Feldman - Artrocker Magazine, Aug/Sept 2010
DOWNLOAD the first single "Screaming Viking" from For Posterity HERE (courtesy of Rock Steady Music)!!
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