For Tomahawk, the band is composed of Mike Patton, vocalist for Faith No More and Mr. Bungle; Duane Denison, guitarist for The Jesus Lizard; Kevin Rutmanis, bass player for Melvins; and John Stanier, drummer for Helmet. Patton and Denison met in 2000 at a Mr. Bungle concert in Nashville, Tennessee, and began exchanging music. From there, the two began to jam together with a view to releasing an album. In a 2016 interview, Duane Denison stated "I wrote the basic tunes on my own and sent the cassettes to Mike, who then added vocals and samples for me to listen to. I think it took about a year altogether. We tracked and mixed live, altogether, in Nashville." The band hired Joe Funderburk to produce the album; Funderburk had previously worked with Emmylou Harris and The Judds. The album was released through Ipecac Recordings, the record label owned by Patton and Greg Werckman. Ipecac is also home to Rutmanis' band Melvins, whose vocalist and guitarist Buzz Osborne had previously collaborated with Patton as a member of Fantômas. It was recorded in Nashville during mid-2001. Denison reflected "Being in Nashville seemed to bring out the worst in everyone--excessive drinking, anxiety, fighting, etc.....that's the chemistry!". in 2002, with John Stanier playing drums in the background. Patton described the new group as "the closest thing to a rock band I've been involved with for a while". Regarding their name, Denison stated "It’s the kind of name an average kid says, “Hey TOMAHAWK is coming to town.” It sounds like it would be this hard, aggressive, typical nu metal band... and we’re not. There's some hard rock to it, but it's not typical. It's not wall to wall big riffs and kicking riffs. It's varied and the name can be deceiving."
Release and reception
Tomahawk was released on October 30, 2001. The album was supported by a tour in which the band supported Tool; however, Tool's fans were unreceptive to Tomahawk and frequently booed their performances. Writing for AllMusic, Blake Butler rated Tomahawk four stars out of five, describing the album as "moody, violent, beautiful, sarcastic, vomitive, silly heartstopping". Butler praised Patton's versatility, calling the vocalist "a complete and utter musical visionary, and a mind-blowing and standard-warping genius". Pitchfork Luke Buckman award the album a rating of 7 out of 10, similarly highlighting Patton's vocals as exemplary. Buckman called Patton "one of the greatest male vocalists around today"; and felt that "Flashback" and "Cul de Sac" were among the album's best songs. Mark Reed of Drowned in Sound rated the album 8 out of 10, noting the "wit" and "style" of the songwriting. Reed felt that the album was among the most conventional of those recorded by Patton, but still described it as featuring "supercatchy, earstretching vocals, dark lyrics rich in black humour, swathes of crunchy guitars and some of the most unusual rhythms to be played by human hands since time began". Writing for the Boston Herald, Butch Lazorchak rated Tomahawkthree stars out of four, finding that it "makes mincemeat out of the new-metal Johnny-come-latelies". Lazorchak described the album as having "an updated '70s hard rock approach that echoes Blue Öyster Cult at its sinister best", and found the opening song "Flashback" to be a "head-crushing pleasure". Reviewing a leg of the album's supporting tour for The Irish Times, Peter Crawley felt that "Sir Yes Sir" was a highlight of the album, due to Patton's "dark utterings" and Rutmanis' "drilling bassline". Writing for CMJ New Music Monthly, Dana Buoniconti compared the album to the soundtracks of David Lynch's film and television work—specifically likening "Honeymoon" and "Sweet Smell of Success" to the Twin Peaks theme. Buoniconti found Tomahawk to be "unsettling and unwholesome", but "thoroughly appealing".
Track listing
Personnel
Chart performance
Tomahawk reached its highest chart position on the United States Independent Albums chart, reaching a peak position of 20 and spending two weeks in that chart. It also reached a peak of 31 in that country's Top Heatseekers chart. It spent one week in the Australian ARIA Charts, reaching number 37.
