This week's feature: Black Hat Brigade

Black Hat Brigade, Fathers (Self-released)

WHO

Apocalyptic-sounding quintet from Brampton.

DISCOGRAPHY

Black Hat Brigade (Self-released, 2008)
Fathers (Self-released, 2009)

IN A NUTSHELL

Fathers finds Black Hat Brigade building on their impressive debut EP to make one of the best full-lengths of the year.

THE STORY

When it came to voting for last year's Polaris Prize, my biggest problem was probably that one of my favourite albums of the year wasn't eligible. Black Hat Brigade's self-titled debut was easily good enough to match any of the other albums that made my list. Unfortunately, at five tracks and twenty-some minutes, it also fell well short of Polaris' eligibility standards.

All of which goes a long way towards explaining why I'm doubly excited by the band's second album, Fathers. Not only does it find Black Hat Brigade building on the excellence of their debut to create something that's just as good -- if not even better -- it also has eight tracks and clocks in at just over thirty minutes, meaning that it's eligible for the Prize (albeit by the thinnest of margins).

I can thus state, without any kind of hedging or qualifications, that this is one album that most definitely will be getting my vote. In fact, I'm fairly certain that Fathers will be featuring prominently on my year-end lists seven months from now, too.

I don't just love it because of the way it captures the apocalyptic, faintly Wolf Parade-esque whiff of their debut, though that certainly plays a big role in my affection for it. As I've stated on the Polaris jury message board in arguing on the album's behalf, Black Hat Brigade sound sort of like Wolf Parade would sound if Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug collaborated a little more and wrote songs for each other. This means that the vocals have a distinctly Krug-ish tone in the way nearly every word is hiccuped out, while the music has a Boecker-ian focus on rocking out. This much will be obvious to anyone who hears even a moment of "Zombie City Shake".

But at the same time, to simply use the "Wolf Parade" tag as a means of describing the band means missing out on a whole lot else that Black Hat Brigade do exceedingly well. For one thing, they can write pirate shanties, as "Signal Fire" demonstrates with its swinging riff, barked vocals, talk of murder and drunkenness, and the way the line "Son, oh, you know, you know" (in the chorus) sounds an awful lot like "Yo ho ho". For another, they're able to perfectly replicate the sounds of an old-school Nintendo (see "Castlevania", which definitely conjures up some vague eight-bit memories).

And, most importantly, they can write an album that sounds like it was written by a band working together, rather than by two songwriters working at cross-purposes (though admittedly that same thing could've been said by Wolf Parade back on their last independent EP, but that's beside the point). Black Hat Brigade give off this incredible aura of invincibility throughout Fathers, with songs like "Kitchen Party" and "Vera" leaving you feeling as if they're some titanic force of nature on a mission to sweep away every last person who gets in their path.

Obviously, this just represents the natural extension of what they were doing on their debut, but not even in my wildest dreams did I think they'd progress this far this soon. But Fathers demonstrates conclusively that they have, and it means that Black Hat Brigade are now, unquestionably, a force to be reckoned with. Whether this force will be heard across the country in time to make a difference on Polaris voting remains to be seen (I'm guessing it won't, given how late in the eligibility period the album is appearing, though crazier things have happened). But what's certain is that Black Hat Brigade have arrived, and they've done so in a most spectacular fashion.

Want to win Fathers? Thanks to Black Hat Brigade, i(heart)music has a copy to give away. To enter to win, e-mail me your name and mailing address by next Monday, and I'll pick a winner randomly!