We’ve all had the friend who has gone clean. Once upon a time they were the quintessential party accessory: they knew the best clubs, the best after parties, and those underground raves where ladies in Halloween costumes sold you brownies laced with every drug on god’s green earth. Then the intervention happens. They shave their head, find religion, and next thing you know they fake cough every time you light up a cigarette and only order water at the bar.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club hasn’t whipped out the razors and Ezekiel quotes yet, but a transformation is brewing. Beat the Devil’s Tattoo still consistently contains all the hallmarks of the BRMC sound: guitar distortion, feedback, a hint of ‘70s psychedelic roots. But once every few tracks, a new identity rears its ugly head. This new sound is cleaner, sleeker, and well, downright lame. It looks like BRMC are leaning away from garage rock and turning to… “alternative.” You can shudder, it’s ok. The band that was once a chaser to a JD shot and the perfect soundtrack to a barroom brawl now spew out tracks that make them sound like Oasis’s step brother.

For anyone fortunate enough to be too young to have participated in the ‘90s “alternative” scene: it was full of women who looked like Sinead O’Connor and wore half tanks to show off their vampiricly pale stomachs. It was disgusting, everyone was depressed (probably from looking at ugly stomachs all day), and Bush was considered a decent band. Why BRMC is reverting to these backwards, caveman times is unknown; what is known is that this musical style does not suit the West coast trio who gave us gems like “Whatever Happened to My Rock ‘N Roll” and “Berlin.”

For old school fans, Beat the Devil’s Tattoo is still salvageable. Beat has an internal schism – there are three distinctive styles in one album. First there’s the gritty Western desert sound of songs like the eponymous opener and “River Styx”; secondly is the southern folk tunes of “Sweet Feeling” and “The Toll;” lastly are the nauseating, anachronistic ‘90s wanna-be tracks like “Conscience Killer” and “Bad Blood.”

The album thankfully kicks off with a great song, “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo,” that falls within their “western” sound. From the opening slow stomp, to the deadpan singing, the guttural “ahh”ing, and the rattle-snake-like tambourine, the song is mesmerizing. The chanted chorus and percussion create a religious effect where the song almost becomes a mantra, a plea to a higher power – or perhaps one from below. From there, the album falls off with “Conscience Killer” and “Bad Blood.” Track four, “War Machine,” with sick distortion and an undulating guitar, sets you up for something better than is delivered. Luckily, “Sweet feeling” is a simple, gorgeous, dreamy song full of longing and regret, and even a bit of harmonica. “Evol” is a track for all the shoegaze fans out there. It kicks up the energy from the previous track with its instrumentals, which seem to be constantly building tension, like a guitar string slowly tuned tighter and tighter – while the vocals remain restrained. “Evol” is a great track, but the issue is when that string is being wound, the listener expects to hear the snap. The next track, “Mamma Taught Me Better,” is where you’d expect to hear that explosion of emotion, sound, and rage. Instead BRMC gives us boring, formulaic rock. “River Styx” revisits the sound of the first track, while “The Toll” is much like the “Sweet Feeling,” where dreamy mood of inward-reaching sadness permeates the track.

Although one would think the boot stomping sound BRMC initially presents in the album and the slow, even sweet songs like “The Toll” would clash, they have a thematic connection: religion. “The Toll” is a song of lamentation, a mourning that results from searching the depths of one’s own soul. While “The Toll” is a lonely spiritual act, “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo” is an act of communion with fellow worshippers; the archetypal act of worship: chanting. The next track, “Aya,” continues this theme. The vocalist begs and screams for Aya as if he were howling to the heavens.

There’s not much to say about Beat after “Aya.” “Shadow’s Keeper” is muddled and forgettable. “Long Way Down” channels the Beatles and is enjoyable, but drags on a little too long. The finisher, “Half State,” takes all the musical elements presented earlier in the album and rehashes them in a ten-minute track. There’s distortion, hard rock and shoe gaze, that ‘90s Oasis sound, a reintroduction of the western theme, chanting, a hint of ‘70s psychedelia, while the lyrics “It’s a cruel world that lets us go” and “Where are they now” are repeated. It’s literally BRMC’s swan song. They saw into the future, read their album reviews, and realized Beat was the nail in the coffin for their reputation. In a couple of years they will star in a VH1 “Where Are They Now?” after all their fans have “let them go.”

Beat the Devil’s Tattoo is a mixed bag. There are fantastic songs alongside horrendous ones. BRMC is getting older, and on Beat they often sound out of their element, as if they are simultaneously aging gracefully while desperately trying to stay young. As if “staying young” means playing like the awful bands you listened to in middle school.

Yes, they are undergoing a transformation, and for the worse. Like that friend who tries to go clean and ends up going too far, we have to ask ourselves - were we enablers? Did we somehow help them over the edge? There were signs of BRMC’s burgeoning mediocrity in Baby 81, but we were having too much of a good time listening to the first half of that album and forgave them for the subpar latter half. Now it’s too late, and the Jesus/Oasis freaks got into our party friend’s head, and they may be lost forever.

All we can hope for is a relapse. Maybe a drip of JD will slip onto BRMC’s tongue, their eyes will dilate and they will once again know what they were put on this earth to do: rock, and rock hard. Until then, let’s just hope BRMC doesn’t start channeling Third Eye Blind for their next release…. Now it’s really ok to shudder.

Track List:
1. Beat the Devil’s Tattoo
2. Conscience Killer
3. Bad Blood
4. War Machine
5. Sweet Feeling
6. Evol
7. Mama Taught Me Better
8. River Styx
9. The Toll
10. Aya
11. Shadow’s Keeper
12. Long Way Down
13. Half-State