Thunder Down Under (round 2)

Yes, I basically just reused one of my older titles. No, I don't care. I promised an update this weekend, and I have to wake up in about eight hours to go to work. Not ideal writing conditions, but I'll roll with it.

Remember that band Blackwater Fever I featured a while ago? They were the slow, dark blues band hailing from Australia. Well, tonight's band is basically their foil. Introducing The Fumes.

Hailing from Sidney, Australia, The Fumes are a blues rock band with a very special place in my heart. They three albums under their belts at this point, but their debut opus, "Guns of Gold," is what I'd like to talk about today. The Fumes started out with a fairly simple plan of attack: use delta blues as a foundation, play with a punk rock attitude, and turn the fuzz and distortion to eleven. It's a winning formula that keeps Guns of Gold relevant a decade after its initial release. Guns of Gold is quality blues-based hard rock from start to finish, sprinkled with a refreshing amount of variety. You get acoustic numbers like Postman's Inn, the nearly-seven-minutes-long heavy stomp of Tell Your Story Walking, the long-lost ZZ Top crunch of Down River, and the epic closer Johnny the Lion Slayer. The album does get a little long in the tooth, with a total runtime over an hour, and with three of the fourteen songs going for more than six minutes. They definitely could have made more of an impact by trimming some of that fat, but I'm not going to complain too long about too much of a good thing here. Guns of Gold is certainly worth your time, as is the more "mature" follow up, Sundancer. I haven't listened to the third album, Bloodless, yet, but I'm a little hesitant after the stinker single "Dance in Costume," released after their second album. Then again, I didn't see that song on Bloodless, so I think the coast is clear. Think they learned their lesson (the song was really quite bad).

Anyways, so that's The Fumes. Go check them out if you like blues and/or hard rock. There's plenty of both in their catalog. I'll see if I can get another feature out next weekend. Wish me luck!

Guitarman out.

Sinister roots

Hello, everyone, and happy Easter to you!

As I mentioned over on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/rotgm/), Lincoln Durham's latest album, Revelations of a Mind Unraveling, dropped on the 25th. It's been about three years since his sophomore effort, Exodus of the Deemed Unrighteous, and four years since his debut album, The Shovel vs. The Howling Bones.

First, some more background. Lincoln Durham is a native Texan who tours as a one-man band. His style on his previous albums was a vigorous blend of olden southern Americana. Durham's music is as much founded in bluegrass as in blues, and his records are filled with fiddles, banjos and mandolins accenting his powerful yet loose guitar playing. His first album, The Shovel vs. The Howling Bones, captured my with its stomping riffs and tasty slide guitar. On the other hand, his sophomore effort, Exodus of the Deemed Unrighteous, put Durham's vocals front and center. Durham had sounded like a seasoned blues singer on his debut; his second album saw him attack his microphone like a fire and brimstone preacher. His performance was dynamic, soulful, and one of the only times I've seen spoken word passages actually benefit an album.

So, how does his latest album measure up? Revelations of a Mind Unraveling confused me before I even pushed play for the first time. The album artwork was such a stark departure from the others. Here it is put next to the previous two.

Confusion about the sudden palette change aside, Revelations is one heck of an album. Like Exodus, it's rather short at just shy of 32 minutes. It's by far the darkest and most experimental of his albums so far. The balladry of Shovel and Exodus is kept to a bare minimum here. There are certainly no love songs this time, either. Instead, we get such cheery numbers as "Rage and Fire and Brimstone," "Bones," "Rusty Knife," "Noose," and the uncomfortably titled "Bleed Until You Die." Yikes. The most upbeat track is the gleeful pagan bluegrass of "Gods of Wood and Stone."

The guitar work, though not the emphasis of the album, has a noticeably more modern edge to it at times. If anything, it sounds at times like the blues-meets-punk assault favored by the White Stripes, although with a considerably more traditional approach. As expected, Durham knocks the vocals out of the park with a mastery and fervor that simply can't be topped. The spoken word sections make a comeback, although considerably more blended with the sung passages than on Exodus. They're also kept to a relative minimum. Durham isn't content to simply tell you stories here like he was on Exodus. Instead, he sells his lyrics with positively manic delivery and righteous conviction.

It's not quite like his previous albums, but once again Durham delivers the goods. I can safely recommend this to fans of Exodus of the Deemed Unrighteous, fans of the White Stripes and anyone interested in hearing new takes on classic American genres. You won't regret it.

Until next time. Guitarman, out.

Thunder Down Under

No, I don't mean the erotic theatre group. Not that kind of blog, folks.

I was scratching my head for a while about what group to cover next. Should I look for some new-to-me group? No, I hardly have that kind of time a mere week before finals. Perhaps some more metal? Nah, I'm not interested in getting the blog pigeonholed into a single genre. ROTGM has done consecutive metal spotlights for too long now. How about some criminally unsung blues badassery? Now we're talking my language.

Introducing: The Blackwater Fever.

This Australian trio (formerly duo) have been steadily cranking out some of the darkest, most raw electric blues this side of...well, anywhere at this point, ever since their debut in late 2008. The Blackwater Fever are masters of their craft, namely the creation of languid, tar-black soundscapes. The instrumentation has this sort of effortless feel to it and a simplicity which belies the musicians' tremendous talent. The result is something truly hypnotizing while still often being as heavy as you can get without being labeled doom metal. There aren't self-indulgent guitar solos here, no frills or unnecessary motions, just pitch-perfect pitch-blackness. They've put out three albums and an ep of the stuff so far, with each effort getting progressively more polished and atmospheric. Seriously, if you're looking for something moody and down-tempo, give these folks a spin or two or fifteen. You'll be glad you did.

News, and some music

As I sit here at my kitchen table, typing away on my laptop, I can hardly believe what a crazy summer this has been. I've put on a garage sale, worked in a government cubicle, washed cars, and even received a car of my own. More importantly, I'm adjusting to the reality that my family is finally selling my childhood home. I've known for a while that this would happen eventually, but foreknowledge has done little to ultimately lessen the strangeness of the situation. Moving out of the home I've lived in for as long as I can remember is a frankly surreal experience, and certainly not one I know how to process. Getting ready to move has occupied my time and thoughts this summer, but now that the house is actually going on the market I think it's time I try and get on with my life. For all the memories I associate with this house, it's still just stuff in the end. No sense in getting so hung-up about it, I suppose. Anyways, on with the music. Introducing Alestorm, a Scottish metal band with a pirate fixation. There's a curious tendency of some metal bands (especially power and folk metal groups) to intentionally restrict their lyrical and thematic content to a single topic. From what I've seen, that topic is generally either the medieval ages (the typical setting of high fantasy) or vikings (which makes sense considering how many great Scandinavian metal bands there are). Alestorm, on the other hand, is the only metal group I've seen to have pirates as their central thematic element. The group hammers out well polished power/folk metal, with accordion synths adding to the band's pirate-esque feel. There are more straightforward metal numbers (the guitar harmonics on the track Heavy Metal Pirates reminds me of some classic Judas Priest numbers), but the vast majority of Alestorm songs are littered with faux-accordion, Bowes' gruff Scottish accent, and a certain lightheartedness that separates Alestorm from the crowd. The lyrics, despite being limited to pirate-y things, are genuinely clever and often hilarious ("You put your faith in Odin and Thor, / We put ours in cannons and whores"). At first glance, Alestorm has put themselves into a very narrow box by restricting themselves to songs about pirates. In truth, the band exercises more flexibility than most metal groups I've come across, switching freely between tropes of power metal, folk metal, thrash metal, and even death metal without leaving the listener behind. Alestorm brings well-polished production, creative lyrics, and enough love of fun to the table for me to heartily recommend them. They just released their fourth album (Sunset on the Golden Age) little more than a week ago. Give it a listen, and you might see why I love this group so much.

Sonorant

I promised posts, so here's some more free music. Introducing Sonorant (AKA Chris Catharsis), a Georgia-based metal guitarist well worth keeping an eye on. These days, metal bands can often be divided into either melodic or rhythm-focused groups in terms of their instrumentals. The more melody-based metal acts (Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, etc.) tend to have a wider appeal than, say, rhythm-centric (and, in my personal opinion, fascinating) groups in the vein of Meshuggah. This is arguably all the more reason to appreciate acts like Sonorant which manage to strike an even balance of melodic and rhythmic craziness. Not only displaying a keen ear for melody, Sonorant appears to be heavily influenced by none other than the mighty Meshuggah, as evidenced by the cover of Meshuggah's song Sane on the band's Myspace page. For those of you unfamiliar with Meshuggah, they are essentially the masters of rhythmic displacement, polyrhythms, polymeters, and inordinately heavy guitar grooves. As Meshuggah guitarist Fredrik Thorendal once told Guitar World magazine (quoted from the September 2012 issue), "I understand why people hear odd meters in our songs, because we group our notes in different ways. But just about all of them are 4/4." The band's tracks tend to focus more on creating a groove than a melody. Sonorant's songs, however, combine the interesting rhythmic elements of bands like Meshuggah with some fantastic melodies. As an added bonus, Sonorant's songs don't have vocal tracks, allowing them to appeal to those who would be repulsed by the menacing barks, snarls and growls of Meshuggah's singer. As usual, more of Sonorant's tracks can be found for free at their Jamendo page. Enjoy.

Home Sweet Home

Well, I just got back yesterday from a week-long mission trip to Guatemala. Since today is the last day I can squeeze out of my spring break, I've decided that I'm long overdue for a blog post. Here's my latest free music find:

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

Introducing Florian "Flo" Fusade, a French blues guitarist who has truly caught my attention. I don't think I need to elaborate much on this one. His wailing guitar speaks for him. Anyways, he has two albums (both fairly short) that you can pick up here: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/6125/flo. Give it a listen, why don't ya.