| CD REVIEW Darkseed |
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Band : Devil's Brigade Devil's Brigade is a side-project of Rancid bassist Matt Freeman, in which he expresses his love for the stand-up bass and Psychobilly Punk. It all started in the year 2000, when he and bandmate Tim Armstrong (guitar) started writing songs in between tours of their main band. Eventually some of the songs were recorded, the first of which appeared on the Give 'Em The Boot compilation album. Following that they released two 12-inch singles in 2003 (Devil's Brigade) and 2005 (Vampire Girl) on Rancid Records...but due to Rancid's busy schedules (recording/ touring), the side-project was put on the back burner. When Rancid eventually took time off from touring for their Let the Dominoes Fall albumFreeman got the itch to reactivate his project for a new recording session, and in early 2010 he and Tim, along with drummer D J Bonebrake (from influential Punk act X, and also from the Knitters) entered the studio to record the 12 songs on DB's full-length debut. Apparently Tim already had this idea in his mind for a musical about the building of the Golden Gate Bridge (you know, San Francisco, where the two grew up!?), and eventually 6 songs he'd intended for that project were re-arranged and ended up this album. The other 6 songs are all from the original DB demos. Having checked this band's info prior to listening to their music, I have to say I was at first somewhat disappointed with the harsh Punk sounds of most of the songs. Oh sure, when you strain yourself to it, you'll indeed hear the slapped acoustic bass sounds, but really they're somewhat drowned in the electric guitars. Nice deviations from that...what I just said, sorry...described, are an amount of songs which I can recognize as those recently written by Armstrong : “Bridge Of Gold” (as mentioned in the bio sheet we got along with the download promo of the album) even sees DB steer away from the electric guitar in favour of mandolin and banjo for a very nice acoustic song indeed...which also sees Rancid colleague Lars Frederiksen do a contribution. Moving chronologically further into the album, there's the wacky “Ride Harley Ride”, in which the Punk antics were replaced for a very nice twangy Psychobilly (yeah, here's a song worthy of being called thus!). The song even includes the use of a sleek vibraphone. The twang guitar returns to a degree in the more energetic “Vampire Girl” (as you can guess, and older song). The ensuing “Gentleman Of The Road” is again calmer, featuring Armstrong on vocals, playing his guitar in a style which is partly...well, weird at any rate, and somewhat Reggae-ish...and also the song incorporates the use of some type of xylophone. The album finishes with two more songs of recent writ with the more classic Punk Rock - Psychobilly hybrid track “Protest Song”, and the more up-tempo “Half Way To Hell” which still has the nice twang in the guitars! Bottom line? When listening to the album again (and a couple of times at that), one tends to get charmed by mix of more up-tempo and calmer songs, and the chronological mix-up of style intensities. Not enough for me to like the album to warrant any year-list nomination (not by far), but definitely an album I can now listen to with a leisurely feel. Rancid fans, feel free to disagree with me! I mean, it takes people with different tasted to make a world, and as long as we respect each other's differences, everything is just beautiful, isn't it!? Oh darn...almost forgot: you can listen to the album opening song “I'm Moving Through” (one of the “harder” songs) at myspace.com/devilsbrigadeofficial. For more info, check the samples usually provided by the trusted on-line sales stores (try Amazon.com, for instance). Good news people wanting to see the band in live conditions: Devil's Brigade will be touring (actually IS touring as we speak) in promotion of their album (for dates up to late October, check the band's MySpace page). Bad news (for European fans): at the moment the tour is restricted to the US! 82/100 Tony. |