Album Review: Greg Puciato – Child Soldier: Creator Of God

When discussing Child Soldier: Creator Of God, Greg Puciato says that he feels “guilty that I don’t have a definitive purpose for making music.” He points to Rage Against The Machine as an example of said purpose, or artists who make music as a way to steer themselves through the tides of depression. But what he almost misses here is this: in all of his musical endeavours, Greg Puciato is a man who simply does what he feels like. As frontman of The Dillinger Escape Plan, this could be terrifying to witness, or sly and sneaky. In The Black Queen, he displays a more quiet stripe of his personality, creating in music a feeling familiar to those who regularly see 5 o’clock in the morning from the wrong side. The first time Dillinger played Reading, he took a dump onstage. The last time, far from repeating such tricks, he performed sat on a sofa with a newspaper. As we say, he does what he feels like.

Here, solo (and suddenly released three weeks early in response to a review copy leaking online), this is thrown into even sharper focus. Or, perhaps, blurs any lines into further irrelevance. It’s an album with many sides and many limbs, a varied collection of music that for some would result in confusion and disjointedness, but is simply the work of a gifted artist taken at different temperatures. Fire For Water is a heavy, riffy attack, and Roach Hiss is packed with scything, overbearing guitar, but this is merely one colour here. Opener Heaven Of Stone is an acoustic strum, followed up by the dark electronic pulse of Creator Of God. On You Know I Do there’s an element of something approaching prettiness in its soft beats and synths, while Fireflies is a towering thing filled with light and awe.

Together, this collection of seemingly disparate sounds works because there’s a genuine feeling of spontaneity and that these songs were simply pulled out of their creator’s head as quickly as they came into it, for the sake of creating. And this is where Greg Puciato can take comfort, because this energy is all his own, and therein lies purpose. It is pure, honest expression, art for art’s sake, capturing a spark before it vanishes, whatever form that may take in the finished product. And sometimes, a more intellectual meaning or explanation is completely moot, because simply doing things in the moment and living on impulse and guts and heart and fist are what make us remember we’re alive. And in a time where our wings have been clipped as they have, such basic joys are not just important, but vital to remember.

Verdict: 4/5

For Fans Of: Nine Inch Nails, Mike Patton, Devin Townsend

Child Soldier: Creator Of God is out now via Federal Prisoner.

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