Rock music, in its most essential form, has always been about propulsion, a forward motion, cosmic momentum, the irresistible tension between gravity and escape. On Manhunter, the newest offering from Los Angeles-based Hooveriii, that sense of propulsion becomes something more like a mission, excursion, or a psych-infused pursuit of the perfect riff across interstellar highways, swirling detours, and garage-echoed truths. With Manhunter, Hooveriii have crystallized their artistic arc. This is their fifth album, and yet it feels like a beginning, a powerful condensation of all they’ve explored in previous efforts, delivered now with precision and a welcome looseness that only arrives with years of mastery. Here, the band tosses aside any self-conscious constraint. They are locked into their sound, self-assured and driving straight through it at full throttle. At its core, Manhunter is a rock and roll record, but to say only that would miss the point. It’s also a psychedelic voyage, a garage-rock blowout, a post-punk smirk, a love letter to the golden age of analog imperfection, and a statement of purpose for the modern psych underground. It is aggressive without being grim, exploratory without twisting, and timeless without imitation.
From the opening seconds, Manhunter pulses with tremendous energy. This is not the bloated, ornamental psychedelia of nostalgia, but a lean, wiry, electric display of their powers. You can hear the sweat in the strings, the haste in the rhythm, the hallucinations flickering through layers of fuzz and delay. If their earlier albums flirted with extra-dimensional abstraction, this one is all flesh and blood, full-bodied and alive. The album is produced by Kaz Mirblouk, Bert Hoover III, and Eric Bauer, and the studio sessions, some held at the now-defunct Discount Mirrors, others at Station House, capture their rare alchemy. There’s a room sound here that isn’t easy to replicate. The drums thump but don’t dominate. Guitars sizzle and sneer without ever turning sloppy. Keyboards hover like specters. The mix, mastered by Nick Townsend, makes everything breathe, giving each instrument its rightful place in the sonic constellation. There’s a natural evolution happening here. Hooveriii have always been skilled at balancing jammy excursions with songcraft, but Manhunter brings a newfound sense of structure. The band flexes their ability to write hooks that shimmer and throb with proximity, without sacrificing their gift for heady grooves or strange, beautiful digressions. The influence of the seventies arena rock is absolute, not in scale, necessarily, but in ambition. The band isn’t afraid to go big. They just do it their way.
This band feels tighter than ever, and it’s remarkable how they navigate so many styles with ease, post-punk sharpness, slinky psychedelic licks, sudden drops into ambient bliss, and then, just when you least expect it, a bulldozer of a garage riff kicks down the door. And there’s a vividly hearable emotional clarity beneath the distortion. This is music made by artists who have lived with their influences long enough to stop worshipping them and start transforming them. You hear echoes of King Crimson’s cinematic sweep, the druggy pulse of The Black Angels, the scuzzy joy of Thee Oh Sees, and the sharp edges of The Fall, but only as distant satellites in Hooveriii’s orbit. Manhunter is a record meant to be played loud, but it’s not just volume for volume’s sake. It invites immersion because there’s movement in every track. Their chemistry is so locked in, it feels less like individual performances and more like a singular organism unfolding in real time. Manhunter suggests the pursuit of answers, truth, escape, and meaning. With fuzz pedals and propulsive rhythms, layered synths and melodic surprises, it chases some elusive, glowing thing just beyond reach.
The most impressive thing about this material is how the band balances density with lightness. These are not songs weighed down by their complexity. Rather, they glide. Every tempo shift, melodic turn, and burst of feedback feels earned. You sense that the band isn’t just showing you what they can do, but revealing what they feel. It’s that emotional undercurrent that lifts Manhunter above its genre. It’s not just an excellent psych-rock record, it’s a deeply human one. And despite its ambitions, it never forgets to be fun. There’s wit here, and swagger, and a kind of stoner-wide-eyed wonder that keeps things from becoming too serious. The album invites you to move, nod your head, dance in your living room, and stare at the ceiling and drift. It’s generous like that. Manhunter is a thrilling act of resistance. It’s analog, alive, original, fascinating masterpiece delivered by the greats of our time. It speaks volumes to those who believe rock music is still capable of surprise and transcendence, not as a museum piece, but as a living, breathing form. This is Hooveriii at their best. A band that knows exactly who they are, brave enough to go even deeper. If their past albums charted their path through space, Manhunter is the crash-landing, right into the core of modern rock’s potential. There is dirt under its fingernails, light behind its eyes, and fire in its veins. Manhunter is, simply put, one of the year’s finest records. A bold, beautiful beast of an album. Hooveriii have not only delivered their most complete statement to date, but they’ve given rock and roll a much-needed jolt of psychedelic electricity. For those still chasing the thrill of real, live, mind-bending music, look no further, because the hunt is over.
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