The term "fusion" is too confining a term for the artistry of Tribal Tech. For over a decade, they have made consistently excellent and state-of-the-art instrumental music. Their artistry has gone unappreciated because they occupy an instrumental no-mans land. Guitarist Scott Henderson's style is too hard core and aggressive for the Jazz crowd, yet too harmonically sophisticated for the metal and hard rock crowd. The rhythm section of innovative bassist Gary Willis and precise-yet powerful drummer Kirk Covington is too slamming for Jazz, but too rhythmically sophisticated and swinging for the progressive rock & metal crowds. Keyboardist Scott Kinsey is a musical mad scientist that defies musical description. This leaves Tribal Tech in their own musical netherworld, which they have dominated by producing one stellar release after another. On Thick, Tribal Tech alters their approach, producing an improvised and raw release that is less polished than their earlier work. For the most part, it works. Henderson's muscular Jazz-Metal approach dominates tracks such as "Sheik Of Encino", "Thick", "Jalapeno", "You May Remember Me", and "Slick." The low point of the CD is "Clinic Troll", which seems less like a song than an excercise in silly noises. The interplay of the band is stellar, and while Thick may lack the compositional color of stellar Tribal Tech releases such as Illicit or Reality Check, its visceral punch more than makes up for the relative lack of compositional sophistication
