Dinosaur Jr. - Without a Sound

Green Splatter Vinyl By the time of Dinosaur Jr.'s third major-label album, 1994's Without a Sound, the guitar rock landscape was changing, and the band was too. Grunge was a parody of itself, most of the bands who had been signed in the post-Nirvana rush were proven failures, and loud guitars seemed passé. Meanwhile, Murph was gone from the Dinosaur lineup, leaving J Mascis and Mike Johnson to make this transitional album by themselves. The core of the record is built on blown-out guitar-led rockers cast from the classic Mascis mold, with J powerfully handling the drums and destroying speakers with solos and gnarly sludge. His work on the opening "Feel the Pain" is a clinic on how to balance different guitar sounds and tones into a harmonious whole, the solo on "Even You" is wild even by Mascis' standards, and his trademark wandering playing style (displayed magically on "Over Your Shoulder") is in full effect throughout. He and Johnson team up to make some strong-as-cement, heavy-as-