Screaming Females doesn’t immediately seem like a band that’s been around for 18 years, but perhaps their longevity is due to their consistency. They have kept the same power trio lineup, and all eight of their albums have been released on the same label. Their sound has undergone only incremental changes and, even with the occasional collaboration of a power couple, a plum concert opening, or a brilliant profile, they have never really broken out. either disbanded, maintaining a fairly constant state of popular and critical acclaim over the past decade. But at least for the first 35 seconds, path of desire teases the possibility of a shocking reinvention.
The Screaming Females’ eighth album fades to an uncharacteristic spinning synth effect, but “Brass Bell” soon changes tack, underscoring everything that makes path of desire a modern anomaly. Marissa Paternoster plays riffs, things that make you pick up a Gibson SG at Guitar Center with no intention of buying it. There may be occasional tracks, but more often, Paternoster rips alonethe ones who could easily keep their place in guitar world along with his 25th tab of “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2” and a new Ghost song. Yeah path of desire is anyone’s introduction to the Screaming Females, it immediately reiterates why Paternoster ranked ahead of stars like Dave Navarro and Vernon Reid on a 2012 list of the “Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” Even if the Screaming Females name and DIY operating principles inherently subvert the lemon-squeezer excess of classic rock, his musicianship often aligns with the taste of the most die-hard revivalist hesher.
But by 2023, classic rock stations could be playing Nirvana and PJ Harvey, and this is the legacy that the Screaming Females tapped into by recording at Pachyderm Studios, the same Minnesota facility that gave birth to in the womb and Get rid of me two of the most twisted albums funded by major-label money in the ’90s, whose veins pumped stomach acid and migraine meds. In the past, these might have been the best settings for a Screaming Females record; in fact, they already made an LP with Steve Albini called Ugly. Pachyderm also witnessed less credible, though no less beloved, hits by Soul Asylum and Alkaline Trio, whose straightforward and immediate variants on Midwestern pop-rock are more in line with the coordinates of Paths of desire Although Paternoster’s thunderous bellow is best suited to Metallica’s obligatory chromatic melodies (“It’s All Said and Done”), it can also be complemented by paisley jangle (“Beyond the Void”), double denim (“Let You Go”) o Black nail polish with marker (“Mourning Dove”).
