THE ANCIENT ENEMY
the ancient enemy
SELF-RELEASED

Long Island’s industrial strength metal troupe The Ancient Enemy play the
kind of depraved music that fans of Slipknot and Ministry can enjoy, as the band’s blood-curdling vocal screams and heavy handed guitar riffs are fueled with an enraged use of samples and sound clips, accentuating the overall ominous effect that this two-track sampler casts. Chances are if you shop at Hot Topic, have multiple piercings, and are a purveyor of punishing metal, The Ancient Enemy is right up your alley. www.theancientenemy.net

– Mike SOS

ANDY LAWLESS
break of dawn
INDEPENDENT

Andy Lawless is a maestro of the strummed string, inventive as a songwriter and unique as a singer. His vocals have a strained throat, thousands of miles, millions of tears growl that is decidedly tortured soul city. The disk opens with a Nirvana-esque piece called "Cold Day." With traces of Green Day and Hawkwind, Lawless rocks into the ether with assured power. The band throbs in a never ending boogie over which Andy ululates with impunity. The writing resonates in the artistic swirls of David LaFlamme yet it revels in the hectic urgency of the MC5. "Miriam" is redolent of ancient rituals, blood letting and rare spices, with its Eastern raga groove and dark minor key atmosphere. Love pushes "Need" inexorably and climatic nightmares populate "Weather Channel," Driven like a banshee, Break of Dawn blends Seattle and psychedelia into an entrancing blast characterized by excellent material with a unique vocalism that is loaded with depth, emotion, impact and yearning, striving drive. The future and the past blend into a sublimity best experienced in the cocoon of headphones and solitude.

– Doc Blues

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CATASTROPHIC
catastrophic
SELF-RELEASED

Churning out some old school death metal riffs and sensibilities, the members of NY based Catastrophic are no strangers to the scene. Boasting members of Pyrexia and Obituary, this three-song sampler sounds like the perfect mix of the two bands, as the mid-tempo death grip of “Dismale” should leave your ears discernibly battered and bruised. If you’re big into the mid-‘90s death metal sound, this band, now on tour in Europe, is just what you need. www.catastrophic.org

– Mike SOS

KERRY KEARNEY
secrets from the psychedelta
INDEPENDENT

Secrets From the Psychedelta is Kerry Kearney's most sophisticated and developed music yet. Adopting the outstanding aspects of classic Lowell George Little Feat and by visiting the vistas of wide open soul blues, folk softness and metal rocking, Kerry has pushed the envelope further than any other LI band since the 60s. The tightness, the heart, the heat and the immediacy move this platter like a flying meteor. The band outdoes themselves by being themselves. The disk opens with "Voodoo Down the River", a blue melancholy tale of love and death that rings with bayou mystery and Radiators propulsion. Eileen and Frank push it with swampy fervor while Tony rides a wave of B-3. "You're Making Me Sin" bounces with 60s Motown rhythm and a plea for one more bit of love. "Passing Your Dying Eyes" is elegiac with a folk-bluegrass tristesse fueled by Jim Fleming's mandolin and Charlie's sweet low harp. LaCitra warmly augments "Gaslight" with deep soul harmonies, accordion filigrees and you just sway to the conjunto flow while rejoicing in the love found within. "Planet Blues" is lowdown, deep in, heartbreak that's got the Feat feel blended with NRBQ and vivid echoes of "Rocket 88." Campo gives Bill Payne a real going over on his 88s, I tell you. The electric version of "Really Ruined It Baby" is feral and brutal and inconsolable which is as far from the barroom singalong spirit of "The Sidewalks of NY" as can be. Kerry has voyaged further into the Psychedelta than ever before and it is clear that if you play it, the knowledge will come!

– Doc Blues

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MAN IN GRAY/ UNSACRED HEARTS
split 7”
SERIOUS BUSINESS

Is Brooklyn burning? Well, after a close listen of two of the boroughs
stalwart acts, where there’s smoke, there’s bound to be fire. And, both Man in Gray and Unsacred Hearts bring their own unique kindling their split CD release. Up first, the jagged female fronted Man in Gray’s two-track offering, summoning up Blondie and Yeah Yeah Yeahs while throwing the rawk afterburner on full throttle. Next come the subversively clever Unsacred Hearts, whose stream of consciousness vocal delivery fits perfect with the atomic musical backdrop, making for a listen as captivating as reading Hemingway for the first time. Despite the hoopla over Brooklyn and its music scene, these two bands are actually bands you’ll respect yourself in the morning for liking, and this split is a great pickup for the indie rock mogul in you. www.seriousbusinessrecords.com

– Mike SOS

TINSLEY ELLIS
highwayman
ALLIGATOR

Tinsley Ellis makes blues that could melt asbestos, crack titanium and cleave solid rock. If you like rocking blues with the emphasis on the blues yet not leaving out any rocking, Ellis is the man. His superheated guitar is both bluesy and soulful but he also soars into stratospheric arcs of celestial
grandeur and planetary motion. Tinsley's roots are anchored in the red clay of his longtime Georgia home and his grooves are as big as Lookout Mountain. The CD covers much of the material that we heard at the Riverhead Blues Festival as it was recorded live at the famous Chord On Blues club in Chicagoland, St. Charles, Illinois this year. Ellis is every bit as hot as you remember and takes excellent studio material to another dimension altogether. His fretwork is expansive and exploratory with echoes of many but only being one, Tinsley Ellis! Vocally, Tinsley also has the goods with impassioned, emotionally torn and exhaustively moving power. It's live where the real strength is generated and, from free flowing jams to one note manifestos and gut wrenching rhythm c/o the Evil One's earthquaking bassing, the power trio drumming of Jeff Burch and Todd Hamric's trademark St. Vitus' dance on the keys, this band really
produces. They manufacture a Grand Coulee Dam worth of rock drenched in a soul of blue so deep that it hurts. Every cut is sizzling yet the most
incandescent riffs, rhythm and root belong to several including funk boogie-er title cut "Highwayman", the Freddie King inspired "A Quitter Never Wins", a smoker blast called "Hell Or High Water", rock anthemic gutbuster "The Last Song" along with "Leavin' Here", "Pawnbroker", "The Axe"....ah hell, they all drive, soar and swoop, rock and sway and all are true blue to the core. Tinsley's converted me completely. Long live the blues, long live rock, long live Tinsley Ellis. 9 snaves.

– Doc Blues

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