Reviewed by Mike Wood

It really isn’t until the fourth track on “Love,” Flipper’s first set of orig­i­nal mate­r­ial since 1993, that you can exhale and believe. “Live Real” kicks in with the somber, hyp­notic bass line, the scrap­ing gui­tar, and the sar­cas­tic rant­ing of Bruce Loose, announc­ing that Flip­per has lost none of its rage nor humor.

It is dicey at first. The first three tracks, while decent, seem awk­ward. They are a mix of metal, Nir­vana and old sen­ti­ments that ring a bit hol­low. The titles alone-“Be Good, Child,” “Learn To Live” and “Only One Answer” sum up the lyrics and the stilted feel. What then glo­ri­ously ensues, how­ever, are seven blis­ter­ing, indeli­ble songs that could only be the work of Flip­per. Even with­out the late, great Will Shat­ter, Flip­per imme­di­ately catches up with the times and their own legacy.

The most Flipper-esque tunes, “Why Can’t You See” and “Old Graves,” put the band’s newest mem­ber to work. Bassist Krist Novacelic has big sonic shoes to fill, but fill them he does, pro­vid­ing the murky, sludgy beat to all the songs, but espe­cially giv­ing these two tracks a clas­sic feel. He teams nicely with the gui­tar of Ted Fal­coni, who remains ever adept at saw­ing through a melody. “Trans­par­ent Blame” and “Love Fight” are also immense, with Loose’s vocals as con­fronta­tional and insight­ful as ever.

Flip­per were among the few bands that made your hair stand on end just by warm­ing up. “Love” is not only a reminder of that (as is the killer live com­pan­ion release, also on MVD, “Fight”) but stands on its own as in real time as a release by a band still vital, still fearless.