Ripple Music is doing God’s work in giving us the first ever repressing and remastering of instrumental desert rock legends Yawning Man’s debut EP, Pot Head. Originally released in 2005 after the band had been jamming together for around twenty years, Pot Head set the stage for what the standard is for instrumental desert rock today.
There is not much I can say about Pot Head that has not already been documented, but what I can say is that the remastering sounds amazing, especially on vinyl, which I was lucky enough to receive a few days early. It is subtle, but you can tell if you listen side by side. Updated in the best ways possible. Digital Smoke Signals sounds as great as ever, being one of my favorite Yawning Man tracks in their discography, it has only gained with the remaster. The layout and art are updated too, all increasing the awesomeness of this release. I love that Todd worked directly with the band on this, getting their input two decades later, on how they would have improved certain aspects of an already classic release.
If you have not heard Pot Head before, you no longer have an excuse, because Ripple has done you the service of making this available to the masses again. Buy this, put it on your turntable, plop on those headphones, and be ready to be amazed. 8/10
Apostolica - Animae Haeretica (Scarlet Records) [Matt Bladen]
Easiest review I've done all year! Do you like Powerwolf? Great! You'll like Apostolica. It's actually scary how close they sound to the Lycanthropic power metal crew. The gruff vocals, the Teutonic power metal chug, the occult imagery/lyrics and symphonic/orchestrated sections.
Easiest review I've done all year! Do you like Powerwolf? Great! You'll like Apostolica. It's actually scary how close they sound to the Lycanthropic power metal crew. The gruff vocals, the Teutonic power metal chug, the occult imagery/lyrics and symphonic/orchestrated sections.
Animae Haeretica is their second album that draws inspiration from the Apostolics (a Christian sect founded in Northern Italy during the late 13th century by Gherardo Segarelli), like the mystery's surrounding the Illuminati, the Apostolics make for some great storytelling due to their unorthodox beliefs (A protest against the invasion of the Church, who branded them Heretics).
The music has triumphal moments such as Tomorrow Belongs To Me, along with full on power metal riffers like Rasputin and Fire, that Germanic sound of thrashy power metal coming through in the biting guitars and rough vocals, while the scope is broadened with ecclesiastical chanting and haunting church organs. To be honest Animae Haeretica is a decent album, if you like Powerwolf but it’s been done to death. 6/10
Never Obey Again – The End Of An Era (Scarlet Records) [Matt Bladen]
Looks like I’m going 2 for 2 on Scarlet Record releases this week. Never Obey Again are a modern metal band from Italy, bringing chuggy djent riffs, electronics and nu/alt metal influences that aspire to be Spiritbox, Linkin Park, Evanescence and fellow Italians Lacuna Coil but rather come off as a bit of a pastiche.
Never Obey Again – The End Of An Era (Scarlet Records) [Matt Bladen]
Looks like I’m going 2 for 2 on Scarlet Record releases this week. Never Obey Again are a modern metal band from Italy, bringing chuggy djent riffs, electronics and nu/alt metal influences that aspire to be Spiritbox, Linkin Park, Evanescence and fellow Italians Lacuna Coil but rather come off as a bit of a pastiche.
Now the performances are great and singer Carolina has a great emotional vocal delivery, perfect for the feminist, defiant lyrics of Toxic Feelings and Take Care Of You, a band with a message brought to the listener with hooky choruses and big riffs, but Never Obey Again don’t really stand out from a very saturated style, tracks such as Stronger making me think of a Eurovision ‘rock’ number.
Of course if the lyrics resonate with you then you’ll disagree and really get into the record however from a strictly musical view these Italians are trading very well traversed water. They also close the album with a cover of Zombie from The Cranberries, its average at best and we don’t need another cover of this song (Breed 77 already did the best version).
The End Of An Era, is just the start for Never Obey Again, so there’s plenty of potential. 6/10
Starbenders - Take Back The Night (Sumerian Records) [Rich Piva]
Starbenders are a very slick self-described “glam rock” band out of Atlanta, Georgia who play big, arena rock anthem type stuff that sound like if the understudy of the understudy of the understudy to Pat Benatar was fronting a Frontiers Music backed band. Their third (!) album, Take Back The Night, is more overproduced, generic hard rock that sounds like it was built in a lab, with some nice guitar work but with at best generally unmemorable and at worst nausea inducing songs in a world where there could be million other bands who do and/or could sound just like them. I don’t want to visit that world.
All you need to hear are the first couple of tracks to know this will not stick with you, but at least the solo on the song Sex is nice. Body Talk is cringy and We’re Not OK sounds like a terrible soundtrack song that plays during a c-movie sex scene. Yikes, I really started to turn on this album by the time Cherry Wine came on, and the rest is a hard pass. I tried, but yeah, I am not feeling this at all. Oh, don’t get me started on the cover of Alice Cooper’s classic, Poison. There ought to be a law against such atrocities. I would be issuing the warrant as we speak. I am not sure who the target audience for Take Back The Night is, but it is certainly not me or anyone else who I care about.
Well, if you can’t say anything nice… I keep taking glam rock albums from the folder, and each one of them have been different and my expectations have been quite wrong. I want Bowie glam, not what this is, whatever it is…and whatever this is I want no part of. This may have been one or two points higher if not for the utter murdering of a classic Alice Cooper song, which to me is an unforgivable act. 1/10
Starbenders - Take Back The Night (Sumerian Records) [Rich Piva]
Starbenders are a very slick self-described “glam rock” band out of Atlanta, Georgia who play big, arena rock anthem type stuff that sound like if the understudy of the understudy of the understudy to Pat Benatar was fronting a Frontiers Music backed band. Their third (!) album, Take Back The Night, is more overproduced, generic hard rock that sounds like it was built in a lab, with some nice guitar work but with at best generally unmemorable and at worst nausea inducing songs in a world where there could be million other bands who do and/or could sound just like them. I don’t want to visit that world.
All you need to hear are the first couple of tracks to know this will not stick with you, but at least the solo on the song Sex is nice. Body Talk is cringy and We’re Not OK sounds like a terrible soundtrack song that plays during a c-movie sex scene. Yikes, I really started to turn on this album by the time Cherry Wine came on, and the rest is a hard pass. I tried, but yeah, I am not feeling this at all. Oh, don’t get me started on the cover of Alice Cooper’s classic, Poison. There ought to be a law against such atrocities. I would be issuing the warrant as we speak. I am not sure who the target audience for Take Back The Night is, but it is certainly not me or anyone else who I care about.
Well, if you can’t say anything nice… I keep taking glam rock albums from the folder, and each one of them have been different and my expectations have been quite wrong. I want Bowie glam, not what this is, whatever it is…and whatever this is I want no part of. This may have been one or two points higher if not for the utter murdering of a classic Alice Cooper song, which to me is an unforgivable act. 1/10
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