Review: Toehider – I LIKE IT!

Style: progressive metal/rock (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Troldhaugen, Ziltoid
Review by: Stephen
Country: Australia
Release date: 4 September 2020

Mr. Mills is at it again with Toehider‘s newest album I Like It. This has been one of my most anticipated releases of the year, personally. I listen to What Kind of Creature Am I? and Good constantly, so needless to say my expectations were set high for this release. Did I Like It live up to the high expectations? Spoiler alert, no it exceeded them.

Right off the bat I will tell you that my favorite two tracks are “wellgivit” and “Died of Dancing”. I really don’t think those two tracks could be any more fun. Not to say the rest of the album isn’t great as well, because it is, but these two have been on repeat for me since the album dropped. If you are familiar with Toehider, you know how strong the 80s influence is and “wellgivit” takes that 80s influence in a different direction. It has lush and fun synths with a catchy hook and I’d argue that it would be extremely difficult to stay still while this track is playing. Moving on, if you like bass guitar, “Died of Dancing” is another track you cannot miss. Much like “wellgivit”, this track is very upbeat and with catchy vocal melodies. These two tracks give the genre something that few prog bands deliver on, and that’s fun.

As I said previously, the rest of the album is great outside of the two songs mentioned. “GO FULL BORE!” kicks the album off with a slap in the face to buckle up for a wild ride. It even has a moment where it switches to a black-metal-parody, then transitions to a heavy guitar breakdown that slowly dissolves into an 80s inspired synth and guitar lead groove. I find myself creating all these hyphenated words describing this album, but it really is it’s own unique style start to finish.

What makes I Like It great is the same thing that makes Toehider great, tons of variety. The album features fun danceable songs, power-prog-esque songs, songs that feature a banjo, songs with huge harsh vocals, soaring clean vocals, tasty guitar riffs, and much more. The album even throws a dash of punk rock in a few times. I could go on and on about each track on this album, but I’ll keep this short and sweet so you, the reader, can check this album out if you haven’t yet.

All in all, this album exceeded my high expectations and will go right up with my other favorite Toehider albums. I’ve mentioned “fun” numerous times and that’s exactly what this album is, pure fun. If you like bands like Troldhaugen or Cheeto’s Magazine don’t miss this album. Lastly, you will see this album popping up at the end of the year on our 2020 albums of the year list.

Recommended tracks: wellgivit, Died of Dancing, GO FULL BORE!, Moon and Moron, Bats Aren’t Birds, …screw it just listen to it all
You may also like: Cheeto’s Magazine
Final verdict: 9.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Label: Independent

Toehider is:
– Mike Mills (music)