The best music you're not listening to.™ Reviews of lost classics and obscure titles. Unheralded bands and songwriters. New bands deserving of greater attention. The site for the music omnivore. It's all here, on the Ripple Effect
Becoming a teenager in the early 1980s was a cool time, lots of different styles of music on the radio, if you lived in or near a large city, and luckily I did. That helped to influence and shapes my tastes that still hold to this day. New wave, I love it.
WEAREOFF bring me right back to the days of my youth with their take on new wave that has none of the cheesiness and insipidness that a lot of people think of when they think of new wave. This band plays the early style of music that reminds me of Danse Society and the early gothic / synth styles that had a lot of texture and emotion. The ability to play that style and make it sound fresh and interesting and not a copy of that style is a very hard thing to do and they pull it off masterfully.
The songs flow together to become a cohesive whole that get a smile on my face as soon as I put the first song on, and carried it right to the end of the album. The songs have the emotion and atmospherics that drew me in and swirled around me, taking me back to the good times that I had way back when I was younger and made me wonder why more bands don’t play this style anymore, then it hit me, most turn it into parody or a cheap imitation of a certain band and don’t put their own touch into their music, these guys do.
The songs range from faster and dancey to slower and more melancholic, but they all have one thing in common, a sense of love and excitement that pushes the songs into the realm of great. The band takes the new wave sound and gives it the push that makes it sound interesting and new again. The gothic type new wave stays on the more new wave side and doesn’t have much to do with modern gothic music and for that I’m glad, no morose, obtuse lyrics and no pretentions either. Every song on this album was a winner and there isn’t one that I could recommend more than another, that’s the sign of a great album.
I’m so thankful that I got a chance to hear this band from Hamburg, Germany, and now I’ve got a new favorite band because of this album. Take a chance, give it a listen and enjoy ten songs that just get better with each listen.
I've lost count on how many times I've had to change my opinion on Thin Lizzy over the years. When I was in high school I would only listen to the kick ass songs on their albums like "Warriors," "Suicide," "Emerald" and so on. I'd complain loudly about the not heavy jams as sounding like "fuckin' Springsteen." (I did the same thing with UFO). That's why Live And Dangerous (and Strangers In The Night) were the ones I liked the most. I made mix tapes from their albums deleting all the songs I didn't like so I could rock out non-stop. Later on when their albums were reissued on CD I started listening to them in their entirety and I realized that the non-heavy rock songs were pretty good! Even better was that they weren't Springsteeny at all! For awhile I wasn't that into the first 3 or 4 albums that much, but then they grew on me, too. Same with the last 2 or 3 albums. Before I knew it I had just about everything and liked it all except for a handful of songs. Not bad for a band with a dozen studio albums.
When it was announced that Thin Lizzy's touring line up was going to start recording new music I wasn't really sure I wanted to hear it. Mainman Phil Lynott's been gone for a long, long time and has achieved full on legendary status. Guitarist Scott Gorham's done a great job of re-establishing the name Thin Lizzy and reminding everyone they deserve a place up there among the very best classic rock bands. Unfortunately, classic rock radio only ever plays "The Boys Are Back In Town" but that's another story. When they decided to not release new music as Thin Lizzy but as Black Star Riders that got my attention. I became much more interested in hearing it, while trying to avoid the new records by Black Sabbath, The Stooges and Black Flag. What really sealed the deal was meeting singer Ricky Warwick and guitarist Damon Johnson for an interview with New Jersey free paper The Aquarian. Not only are they really cool guys but they're the two biggest Thin Lizzy fans I've ever met. Damon saw them in Alabama in 1979 opening for Ted Nugent. One of the few shows they did as a three piece on the Black Rose tour after Gary Moore quit and before Midge Ure filled in. Pretty fuckin cool!
Anyway, All Hell Breaks Loose is a solid hard rock album that will make most Thin Lizzy fans happy. The title track opens the album and picks up where they left off 30 years ago on albums like Thunder & Lightning and Renegade. Heavier than their classic 70's albums but not full on heavy metal. Scott and Damon are a great guitar duo and there are plenty of trademark harmony lines to let you know who wrote the book on this kind of playing. Ricky's vocals are definitely Phil influenced but he's not trying to imitate him. He's from Belfast, which gives him a lot of extra credibility. "Bound For Glory," "Kingdom Of The Lost" and "Bloodshot" have a strong Celtic rock vibe that would have fit in on Black Rose. They even use the same kind of vibraslap percussion effect on "Kissin' the Ground" that was used on "Ballad Of A Hard Man" from 1975's Fighting album. Very cool. But my favorite song is the last one on the album called "Blues Ain't Bad." It has a killer groove like "It's Only Money" or "Johnny The Fox" and some great solos from Damon that remind me of Snowy White's work with Thin Lizzy.
I've done it the hard way. I'm here to tell you that if you're a Thin Lizzy fan, give Black Star Riders a chance.
StoneBirds - Game Over is a track of straight forward stoner rock riffs with a lot of screaming vocals which I like quite a bit. There is some nice layering of fuzz on the guitar sound that once it hits stays at a constant thrum along with a slower, driving drum beat. The vocals are pleading and coarse and the call and answer effect is quite epic. It stays thick and dirty even in the jam parts. I look forward to hearing what they have to offer in the extended space an LP. I’m pretty sure it’s a single’s job to pique interest and it accomplishes just that.
Stangala -Konk Kerne starts out a fairly punk driven rock track, dirty as hell and sort of uptempo and plays out with urgent shouted vocals for a few minutes until the bridge which unleashes SAXOPHONE and normally this is where I would go running but these guys manage to make it sound necessary and not at all eighties, maybe more of late seventies punk. Not that this is a punk track necessarily. It stays heavy enough throughout to stick this somewhere in the stoner rock genre, just on a more chipper jazzy side of the ledger. A lot of fun, this would be really good live. All in all it’s a nice taste of what’s to come from these french rockers.
Another magnificent CORSAIR reissue,Alpha Centauri, is scheduled for release through Shadow Kingdom Records onJuly 8th.
Quietly arriving onto the scene in 2010,Alpha Centauriis CORSAIR's first EP and constitutes the foundation of what would be in the coming years a classic Progressive Rock / Heavy Metal band. Heavily rooted in the sounds of classic 70's Rock and Metal, the EP has splashes of just about every 70's band you can imagine, from Kiss, Led Zeppelin, and David Bowie to Black Sabbath. CORSAIR didn't really lather up on the Thin Lizzy sound until later, but the debut EP is a unique and quality product in its own right, attributes upon which Shadow Kingdom Records always places the highest value.
Born out of the hot embers of Charlottesville, VA's Black Sabbath annual tribute band, Mass Sabbath, Corsair formed in early 2008 with the purpose of writing progressive rock that would transcend space and time. Having endured the intensive training of of Mass Sabbath and most recently, Spinal Tap, Corsair has emerged with calloused fingers and a united, unbending will to unleash new found guitharmony powers onto the world of rock. Think Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden and King Crimson.
I freaking love this band. Atmospheric, dark, progressive, gorgeous, and all around well-thought-out, A Fair Dream Gone Mad feels honest, fresh, and unique.
Shades of radio rock here, metal there, acoustic rock here, and indie rock there… this band touches on many different categories of music. Without feeling as though they’re trying to do too much.
The musicianship here is top notch. The guitar is consistently playing gorgeous harmonies over the top of the smooth vocals. “Beneath these Falling Leaves” is a great track to listen to if you’d like to hear the musicianship of the band.
There are hints of jazz in the guitar here and there. While the guitar work and vocals are gorgeous, the band rocks a very aggressive drummer. It works here. He brings the music together and makes it feel consistently heavy, even if the guitar work is often the type of soft “dark rock” that can be seen at times in some softer Tool/A Perfect Circle records.
This is a very accessible band, and I could see them popping up on major tours throughout the country. “All the Pieces” is a track that will get you moving. With a beautiful guitar riff over chugging guitar and heavy drums, this track takes me back to the 90’s when I listened to the old Finger Eleven and Mushroomhead albums.
In fact, old Finger Eleven may be the closest comparison. The dark music, the somber vocals, but the accessibility all leads to a really enjoyable listen.
Big time A here, and I can’t wait to see what direction this group heads.
Shadow Kingdom Records is proud to introduce THE VEIN to the Death/Black/Doom Metal community in the form of debut albumScouring the Wreckage of Time.
In between creating epic doom metal albums, the two ALTAR OF OBLIVION members involved gave birth to this devil child. THE VEIN is a Death/Doom Metal twist to what ALTAR OF OBLIVION has done on albums like last year'sGrand Gesture of Defiance; their approach is very Epic in nature, but THE VEIN offers something much darker and heavier. Musically, the style is a classic one; recalling the late 80s early 90's Death and Black Metal. THE VEIN starts off with a very unique release, a double EP! Shadow Kingdom Records have been waiting to put out the right kind of Death/Black Metal album for a long time now andScouring the Wreckage of Timeunequivocally fits that bill.
Scouring the Wreckage of Timewill be out worldwide this summer and is now available for early order now atwww.shadowkingdomrecords.com.
Stream album tracks "The Great Deception" and "The Poisoned Chalice" atthis location.
Chapter I: The Poisoned Chalice
1. Pale Dawn Rising
2. Seeds of Blasphemy
3. Acedia
4. The Poisoned Chalice
Chapter II: Born into Grey Domains
5. The Great Deception
6. Carving a Labyrinth of Despair
THE VEIN was founded in early 2010 when long time friends Martin Meyer Mendelssohn Sparvath and JBP talked about forming a new band, in which they wanted to pursue their common desire to wander other sonic pathways than had been the case in their previous musical endeavors. After having discussed and exchanged different ideas regarding the direction and style of the band, Martin began composing and quickly came up with two tracks for an EP which was later baptizedBorn into Grey Domains. To complete the unholy circle of despair, Martin and Jens asked bass player C. Nörgaard and drummer Thomas Wesley to join the ranks of THE VEIN which they kindly accepted.
Ranging from long drone-like "wall of sound" compositions with multi-layered sinister soundscapes including atmosphere-enhancing samples to somewhat traditional in-your-face old school death/black metal, the listener is doomed to inhale the putrid stench of moral decay being spread by the sick and plague-infected entity called THE VEIN.
Grande Prairie, AB power-thrash five-pieceEdge of Attack are
proud to announce they will be trekking across Alberta for the month of
June along with a tour date in Winnipeg, MB for their Northern Destruction Tour in promotion of their debut self titled album released on Spread The Metal Recordsearlier this year.
"Introducing the Northern Destruction
Tour!! We can't wait to embark on our Canadian tour and bring great
shows to our Canadian fans. But this is only the beginning. This
September we will journey to Toronto and partake in the Spread the Metal
Festival as a kick-off to part two of the Northern Destruction! See you
on the road!!" comments vocalist Roxanne Gordey.
Northern Destruction Tour Dates:
Friday, May 31, Edmonton, AB - Rendezvous Pub, 8:00pm, 18+, $10 Saturday, June 1, Lethbridge, AB - Moose Hall, 6:00pm, All Ages Sunday, June 2, Calgary, AB - New Black Centre, 6:00pm, All Ages, $10 adv/$15 door Tuesday, June 4, Winnipeg, MB - Royal Albert Arms, 7:30pm, 18+, $8 Wednesday, June 5 TBA Thursday, June 6, TBA Friday, June 7, Devon, AB - P3, 8:00pm, All Ages, $10 Saturday, June 8, Drayton Valley, AB - Scout Guide Hall, 7:30pm, All Ages, $10 Saturday, June 22, Grande Prairie, AB - Better Than Freds, 9:00pm, 18+, $10
Other show dates:
September 7-8, 2013 - Toronto, ON - Spread The Metal Festival
Edge of Attack released their second music video 'In Hell' in support of the album
Edge of Attack - Track Listing
1. In Hell 4:36 2. The Haunting 5:08 3. Demon (Of The Northern Seas) feat. Ivan Giannini 5:04 4. Take Me Alive 4:24 5. In The Night 4:27 6. Edge Of Attack 5:07 7. Rise Above 5:55 8. Forever 3:46 [Free Download] 9. The Damned feat. Ryan Bovaird 6:01 10. Set The World Aflame feat. PelleK 8:29
this psychedelic rock/ progressive/ distinctly English/ distinctly Fey/ Ren-Faire rock-ish/ Fleetwood Mac-meets-The Devil's Blood with better-slash-more-genuine writers/
Ann and Nancy Wilson front Black Sabbath (just look at that chick in the center of the cover image-- you know what I'm talking about)/
Lorena McKenna fronting Blue Cheer, circa 78' to '83/
or, the most accurate and least-though-still-quite-a-bit-reductive, analogy:
Clannad, doing a covers album of Black Sabbath tunes they heard on an unofficial bootleg cassette that they couldn't quite hear but really loved overall-type act:
It's a testament to how good this record, The Circle and the Blue Door, is: these guys are English theater geeks, and English (Not Michael Cane's Jack Carter but Richard E. Grant in anything) on top of that (whom you'd probably yearn to assault were they on the street)-- and yet... this record is well beyond great.
"The Tempest and the Tide," "Spiderwood Farm," and "Sapphire Ward" are among the best tracks of 2013, though the others are quite cool as well....
Riffs! (Surprisingly!) Riffs like... The Circle and the Blue Door is, in an alternate universe very similar to our own, the Sega video game score highlights to a particularly sinister Disney cartoon villain, one from a Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion or something similarly-animated-and-questy-yet- sinister, written by Anton LeVey with Charles Manson giving notes about commercial accessibility....
Frontiers Records is pleased to announce Whitesnake's explosive new double live album “Made In Britain”/ “The World Record” – officially released in the UK on Monday 8th July. The 2-disc live set coincides with the news of Whitesnake's UK Arena Tour with Journey and Thunder which kicks off at Glasgow SECC on Saturday 18th May.
During 2011 the mighty Whitesnake embarked on one of their most successful world tours in recent times, performing 96 shows in over 35 countries, starting in North America in May right the way through until the 2nd UK run in December. The request for another live album came from Whitesnake’s loyal fans - never ones for being notoriously shy about insisting what they want from their favourite musical reptiles. Before heading out on the Forevermore World Tour 2011, the decision was made to record every performance on the tour.
After spending the early part of 2012 feverishly editing and mixing the Whitesnake: Made In Japan live DVD, the production team had the task of listening back to over 90 shows and 130 hours of 100% raw, muscular Whitesnake performances. “Made In Britain” and “The World Record” were inspired by the performances from 9 sold out UK concerts and 87 performances from around the world.
CD 1 – “MADE IN BRITAIN” 1. Best Years 2. Give Me All Your Love Tonight 3. Love Ain’t No Stranger 4. Is This Love 5. Steal Your Heart Away 6. Forevermore 7. Love Will Set You Free 8. My Evil Ways 9. Fare Thee Well 10. Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City 11. Fool For Your Loving 12. Here I Go Again 13. Still Of The Night
CD 2 – “THE WORLD RECORD” 1. Bad Boys 2. Slide It In 3. Lay Down Your Love 4. Pistols At Dawn 5. Snake Dance 6. Can You Hear The Wind Blow 7. Fare Thee Well 8. One Of These Days 9. The Badger 10. Deeper The Love 11. Soldier Of Fortune 12. Burn/Stormbringer
Growing up as a teenager in the 1980’s I’d say my progression through rock and roll was fairly standard. Status Quo were my gateway band that drew me into a world of distorted guitars and hard assed rhythms. From there it had to be harder and heavier…Quo gave way to Maiden who gave way to Venom, who gave way to Mercyful Fate then to Metallica, Slayer, Bay Area thrash, death metal…etc. I also embraced the pantheon of forebears…Sabbath always did rule the roost for me from one summer’s day in ’83 when I heard “Live Evil” and still do to this day as do the classics like Lizzy, Purple, Skynyrd, Led Zep, ZZ Top, AC/DC, Motorhead, Kiss. I was a typical heavy metal teenager.
Metal was always what it was…hard, heavy, escapist…etc but towards the end of the decade there was a shift; the Red Hot Chilli Peppers introduced metallers to funk, The Beastie Boys and Run DMC with Aerosmith introduced metallers to rap, Faith No More introduced metallers to funk and rap and then there was Jane’s Addiction! Jane’s Addiction were something else entirely. At first it was the pictures in magazines like Kerrang! Don’t forget, in the UK we only had one rock radio show late on a Friday night, no rock TV to speak of and only a small handful of magazines which we scoured with a magnifying glass on a monthly basis to find new bands. I was drawn in by the pictures. Here was a band that looked like no other. They kind of looked like chicks but not like those confused LA dudes who all looked like drunken slut aunties but sang about how much pussy they wanted. No Jane’s Addiction had this whole androgynous thing going on…kind of weird, and weird was good. Then there were the reviews that in one breath would mention thrash metal, psychedelia, funk, indie…etc. So, er, what the fuck does this band sound like? Then there was the album cover, two naked conjoined women with their heads on fire!!! What, no demons? No chicks in chains? My young mind was unprepared for such shifts in what had, up to that point, been a fairly consistent metal rule book but I knew I must embrace it. I bought the album, I hadn’t heard it…I hadn’t heard a note these guys played, but I bought the album. Due to the potentially offensive nature of the cover (this was the age of the PMRC) it came in a plain black, plastic, ribbed sleeves with the apparently offensive sleeve inside. I didn’t find it offensive, I didn’t find it titillating or erotic…I just found it beautiful. It was art and at that point art and metal didn’t generally mix but right here was where all that was about to change.
Nowadays we have so much exposure to a band before we get to buy an album from them…MP3s online, greater proliferation of rock radio and TV shows…etc but in 1988 I would still get that sense of anticipation when playing some virgin, unheard vinyl. Would it be a classic or was it money wasted? In every case I could never prepare myself but with Jane’s Addiction the anticipation was heightened by what would surely be an unfamiliar sound. The needle hit the plastic and a gentle bass line draws you in before you are hit at once by an ugly yet beautiful cacophony of noise…a discordant blast of white hot guitar and other worldly droning vocals. It was jarring and unsettling yet oddly familiar in its reassuring heaviness. As “Up The Beach” progressed into a cavernous groove underscoring Dave Navarro’s psychedelic pyrotechnics it was clear that here was a band who had a keen ear and respect for rock’s history but a determination and enough of a sense of disconnection to attempt to reclaim rock for themselves. The song crashes and fades heralding in a gentle, clean picked guitar and it becomes clear that track one was merely a teaser, an intro, a trailer for the main event. “Ocean Size” is where this album really kicks off…ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Jane’s Addiction. The band were heavy, very fucking heavy!!! They could easily out heavy any thrash or death metal band but it was a different kind of heavy, it had a groove, it had dynamics, it had spirituality, it was dark yet it was uplifting. The rhythm section immediately shone as the equal to Bonham/Jones or Ward/Butler, laying down a solid bedrock over which Navarro’s guitar slashed and weaved from over the top heroics to tender introspection…a new guitar hero forged from the past, present and future. Then there was the voice of Perry Farrell. Filtered through a myriad of effects, psychedelic drugs, narcotics and psychoses, Farrell’s voice soared like a feral Robert Plant bursting with pheromones with a ragged edge that was genuinely terrifying yet utterly compelling throwing out irresistible melodies one after the other.
“Had A Dad” continued in the same vein but it was the next track that would really shake things up. “Ted Just Admit It” looked at Ted Bundy’s crimes and forced people to examine a society in which this could happen…complete with sound clips of Bundy himself from the trial. Musically the song builds from a sparse drum and bass groove that almost flirts with reggae, with horn parts bizarrely created by Farrell using his mouth(see…weird). The song builds gradually around Farrell’s plaintive vocals and Navarro’s restrained lines before exploding with jagged shards of vicious guitar. The combination of Bundy’s samples and Farrell’s primal shrieks of “Sex is violent” must surely rank as one of the most visceral and potent moments in rock history. From here it is clear that Jane’s Addiction have ripped down the boundaries making death metal’s horror aesthetic seem cartoonish and glam rock’s posturing seem empty and impotent. Jane’s Addiction were at once destroying rock yet reviving it.
The cathartic pinnacle of “Ted Just Admit It” leaves the listener in danger of being emotionally wrung dry and Jane’s Addiction seem acutely aware of this so instead of dragging you further into their harrowing world they flip the mood on its head for the second half of the album. “Standing In The Shower…Thinking” is a refreshing blast of funky hard rock full of Hendrixy rhythms work from Navarro and a self aware yet universally familiar lyric from Farrell…we’ve all got lost in our thoughts in the shower right? In stark contrast to the brutal outpouring of “Ted Just Admit It” Jane’s Addiction then come up with one of their most achingly beautiful songs…possibly one of the most beautiful songs of all time. “Summertime Rolls” is a gorgeous, psychedelic piece of whimsy that flows and grows built on delicate guitar lines and a wistful yet nonsensical psychotropically bent lyric that seems to mean nothing yet perfectly evokes the sense of lazy, hazy summer days spent utterly wrapt in the company of a lover. Jane’s Addiction then revisit the vibe of the earlier part of the album to keep things in balance on “Mountain Song”. One of the most celebrated songs on the album it is also one of the band’s heavier offerings kicking off with a trademark Eric Avery bass line and featuring a rousing tribal rhythm and a vibrant metallic riff from Navarro. The song has range and expanse much like the subject of the title. Whether playing their heavier songs or their lighter material Jane’s Addiction always created a highly evocative and emotional sound. In the case of “Mountain Song” one gets a true sense of their grandiose intentions. “Idiots Rule” redresses the balances somewhat with another excursion into funk, this time featuring prominent staccato horns from Flea from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and members of Fishbone which serves to highlight the sense of community in the alternative rock scene at the time and also the band’s willingness to work outside of their comfort zone, if they even had a comfort zone to start off with.
It’s impossible to pick out a highlight on an album that is largely free of any imperfection but “Jane Says” is something of an anthem for the band, not least due to the title. Based on a simple, repeated two chord acoustic guitar pattern and augmented by some surprising yet totally appropriate steel drums, the song tells the affecting story of the girl that gave the band their name…a heroin addicted prostitute friend of Farrell. It’s perhaps his relationship with the girl in question that adds a strong emotional undertow to the song yet the lyric serves as such a strong introduction to the character it’s impossible not to paint an incredibly vivid picture from the highly descriptive lyric. Incredibly this song exists beyond the confines of its lyric as the story is not finished being just a snapshot of Jane’s day. It does leave you wondering about the fate of Jane and that is unique in song writing terms.
The vinyl version of the album finished with the brief lounge jazz interlude of “Thank You Boys”, clearly bookending the album with “Up The Beach” and drawing a line under it. The CD issue features an earlier song “Pigs In Zen” which, although a great song seems somewhat superfluous when the band have already created their magnum opus but hey, you can never have too much Jane’s Addiction.
“Nothing’s Shocking” is an album that exists out of time yet is timeless. There was nothing like it before its release and arguably nothing like it since. The band did go on to release the almost as good “Ritual De Lo Habitual” in 1990 that continued in much the same vein whilst developing the sound in some areas and “Been Caught Stealing” did see the band at their commercial peak. Occasional reunions have followed and even a couple of rather fine albums but nothing has matched the sheer visceral beauty of “Nothing’s Shocking”. 25 years after its release I still find myself going back to it at an alarmingly regular basis and still finding it both fresh and refreshing. After all this time it still reveals little hidden tricks, a subtle acoustic guitar overdub here, a percussive twist there and I have no doubt, in 25 years time when I am an old man, this album will still sound more vital and alive than whatever music we’ll be force fed in the future.
