Reviews: Gone Cosmic, All Souls & Fatso Jetson, Revival Black, Amken (Reviews By Rich Piva & Matt Bladen)

Gone Cosmic - Send For A Warning, The Future’s Calling (Grand Hand Records) [Rich Piva]

The sheer volume of excellent stoner/doom/heavy blues bands with amazing female vocalists has been stunning over the last couple of years. That momentum continues with the second full length from Calgary, Alberta, Canada’s Gone Cosmic. On their second full length, Send For A Warning, The Future’s Calling, the band even more seamlessly combines the heavy blues inspired killer vocals of Abbie Thurgood with the more stoner/psych leanings of the rest of the crew to create an absolute ripper of an album that melds the best of both of those worlds.

Leading the way with that amazing voice, the opening track, Crimson Hand, sets the stage perfectly for what the nine tracks bring to the table. Blues drenched vocals with a killed low end and heavy psych influenced guitars and a nice stoner vibe; what more can you ask for. If you have heard the most recent Lucid Furs record it would be a nice reference point for what we have going on here. Tracks like For Sabotage and Endless are other standouts that outline that killer voice and the obvious next level skill of the players in Gone Cosmic. 

Envy Thrives may be my favourite track on Send For A Warning, The Future’s Calling, with a bass line reminiscent of something off a Zeppelin record coupled with the perfect vocals/guitar combination makes this a track for any end of the year playlist. The bass sound on this record is top notch. To Refuse Compromise is another standout track, an upbeat three-minute blast of energy and urgency. Great stuff.

Another great release in a series of amazing records from female fronted bands. This one is right up there with the top ones over the past couple of years. There is a sense of urgency on this album that makes me go back to it often. Or maybe it is that and that voice Gone Cosmic has released a great sophomore record that is highly recommended. 8/10

All Souls & Fatso Jetson - Live From Total Annihilation (Ripple Music) [Rich Piva]

The pandemic, while epically shitty, has given us music lovers some things we may never have heard before. The concept of a livestream concert has taken off, and bands have been very creative in finding ways to get their music out there and in some cases pay the bills. From some of those livestreams and/or shows played live without crowds, we have been gifted some very cool output to help us through the shitstorm the world has been going through for the past two plus years. Thanks to Ripple Music, we have a few of these gems recorded on wax for our enjoyment. One of these being a split live release from buddy bands All Souls and Fatso Jetson. All Souls was relatively new to me, while Fatso Jetson is an originator and criminally underrated band in the desert/stoner scene. This should be interesting.

All Souls lead off with some of the heavy, dark rock they are known for with a new track, Who Holds The Answer, which is a killer track that deserves a studio treatment as well. The track You Just Can’t Win from their latest record is up next and outlines the connection between these two bands. Yes, All Souls leans more on the heavy alt rock side compared to the more psych/desert vibe of FS, but the swirling guitars and haunting vocals show why members of both bands were at one point in time contributors to Josh Homme’s Desert Sessions. Winds is another standout track for their most recent album and has a dark, almost gothic vibe and may be one of their best tracks, which sounds killer live too. Sentimental Rehash is the opener to their last album that gets us moving and wanting more which then transitions into maybe my favourite All Souls song Time Bomb, which closes out their first album and is the perfect set closer. Great stuff.

Fatso Jetson went with some lesser-known tracks for their part of the split. Drifting Off To Storybook Deth is a new track that is heavy on the psych side of the band and any new Fatso Jetson track is welcomed by me with open arms. Monoxide Dreams from 2010’s Archaic Volumes is killer live, I love the laid-back psych version of FS, and this track played live outlines that perfectly, and a perfect time to bring out that secret stash they mention. Dream Homes from a 2016 split single leans more on their desert/stoner side, and dare I say is a bit funky and reminds me a bit of something from the Them Crooked Vultures record. Long Deep Breaths from 2014’s Early Shapes is another killer FJ track that almost seems whispered in its live form, which translates perfectly.

This is a nice little gem of a record that may not have existed in different times. My only complaint is the mixing is a bit low. I am reviewing this from the digital and not the vinyl, so I am hoping that is the issue. Otherwise, this is a fun split live record by two bands hungry to perform and get their creative juices flowing again. I am hoping for some new studio material sometime soon from both, but for now sit back and let this live experience take you over. 8/10

Revival Black - Under The Light (TMR Rock Records) [Matt Bladen]

Liverpool rocker Revival Black return bigger, better and fuzzier on their second album Under The Light. Throughout this record Adam Kerbache's rhythm guitars seem to be particularly fuzzy and distorted, while this may be a production issue, they don't sound too clear at all meaning that the riffs no matter how big and if you listen to track such as Broken Home or Believe they are big, the riffs get they never have that punch you want. Alan Rimmer's leads too seem to suffer the same fate when playing the cleaner solos etc, resulting in almost nothing from Jamie Haywards bass playing. It's only on the acoustic tracks such as Hemispheres that you can get a bit of depth and really hear Dan Byrne's melodic but whiskeyhued vocals, that is until the echoed production renders things messy again. 

I can understand that perhaps they are trying to get a bit of attitude or bite by doing things this way but for me it is a bit distracting, especially for what is modern bluesy hard rock. A shame as on Under Fire they have some creative flashes that separates them from the rest of the Planet Rock bands that they will be lumped with as even here when you can hear Haywards bass at the beginning, when the distorted guitars come in it disappears and Ash James drums sound tinny. It may just be me but I think the production on this record and the insistence of playing every guitar through The Kinks pencil stabbed amp sound gets a little tedious. I'm sure on stage they thrive but on record I'm a little frustrated listening. 6/10

Amken - Passive Aggression (Massacre Records) [Matt Bladen]

Athens thrashers Amken return with their second full length of politically/socially influenced thrash metal. This is their first album on Massacre Records and they up the aggression on this one leaving some of the crossover thrash of their previous album to concentrate on their Teutonic thrash sound the blistering savagery of the riffs with those growled vocals. I mentioned in my review of their previous album that their songs are made for live stage but they haven't spent a lot of time touring lately, so this is a chance for them to display their abilities honed over the 10 year existence of the band. 

From the heavy chanting on I Am The One to the vicious groove of Dead Man's Land which brings some death metal to proceedings leading into another thrashfest of The Li(f)e We Need. There's plenty of the Kreator/Sodom/Destruction sound here but also some Second Wave touches from bands such as Exodus and Testament. The improvement from the previous album is noticeable with a lot of dynamism and rage/aggression to it, so for fans of the heavier side of thrash there is nothing passive about this aggression. 7/10