North Carolina fine purveyors of scuzz ‘n’ buzz Rocky Mtn Roller will make their full-length debut on Sept. 12 with Haywire on Who Can You Trust? Records. And yeah, it’s a beer-cans-on-lawn rager, no doubt about it. Eight classic sounding tracks that spell bologna ‘baloney’ and go where the riffs take them. But — and it’s a sizable but — if all you hear in “Hoodwinked Again” (video premiering below) is raw-recorded chicanery and a hook, my sincere suggestion as your friend is that you listen again. In four minutes flat, the four/five-piece come peeled out on biker riff glory, and almost right away, a tense current of guitar or keys coincides, tapping out the meter. It’s there under the verse, and departs from the chorus (I think), letting the wah guitar add likewise subtle psychedelic flourish in a seeming answer back to opener “Automatons in the Sky” before that tap-tap-tap returns. Oh, and there’s shred. Like, everywhere.
Those nifty cosmic/weird touches persist. The later “Part Time Rocker” stomps out a ’70s vibe that sees the guitars of Zachariah Blackwell and Ruby Roberts aligning for solos and departing each other’s company again only to pair up again for the rolling riff. Is there a layer of acoustic guitar on “Automatons in the Sky?” That would go well with the oh-by-the-way-we-like-Hawkwind multi-layered delivery of the title-line, or the proto-NWOBHM reinvention of the subsequent “Haywire” (premiered here), that title-track sounding rushed in precisely all the right ways. Later on, “Protocol” busts out some of the most urgent crotchal thrust I’ve heard since Death Alley made their debut nine years ago, delivering metal-via-rock grit while still keeping the party of “Hoodwinked Again” and side A closer “Human Tumbleweed” here, that latter cut offering a bounce that reminds of Thin Lizzy and suits the critique of lifestyle in the lyrics — which, interestingly, kind of follows the opposite perspective of “Part Time Rocker.” Clearly the answer is to rock all the time, with purpose. So they do.
A holdover from their March 2020 self-titled debut EP (review here), “Monster” begins with a quick flash of lysergic synth and fulfills that promise with a steady current of wah and later shove, and as they careen through “Part Time Rocker” and “Protocol” toward “Sun Setting Pink” — the closer and longest song at 6:35 — the payoff is there in the energy of their delivery as well as the manifestation of the underlying breadth of craft. That is to say, they at last reveal they’ve known all along what they’re doing and declare themselves ready to ride twyn Skynyrd leads into the song’s titular sunset, which they do until the last shimmering guitars are gone behind whatever the name of that hill is over there. And that final minute’s stretch, following head-spinning drum fills from Alex Cabrera and the must-you-go-so-soon momentary departure of bassist Luke Whitlatch (who also did the album cover), reinforces the message way back in “Automatons in the Sky” that Rocky Mtn Roller are nowhere near as simple in terms of overarching style as they might at first appear, and that as raw as this first LP is, and as focused as the band are on harnessing forward momentum in propelling you from one end to the other, they do so not without being mindful of atmosphere and with an inventive conversation between the guitars, bass, drums, vocals, and sometimes keys.
This is something to keep in mind as you take on “Hoodwinked Again” and its VHS-grainy, lots o’ fun video below. It speaks for the entirety of Haywire in its tonality and the barebones feel of the recording — very much an aesthetic choice and one that ends up suiting them well — and offers hints of the individual take that feels emergent in their sound. To bottom-line it, there is a ton of potential for exploration in what they’re doing here, and enough elements that they could spend the rest of however long they’re together — months, years, decades — tipping the balance back and forth, and probably having at least some amount of a good time doing it. And at that point, why not?
Preorder links and whatnot follow.
Please enjoy:
Rocky Mtn Roller, “Hoodwinked Again” video premiere
PRE-ORDER THE LIMITED ALTERNATE COVER VERSION HERE: http://whocanyoutrustrec.bigcartel.com/product/rocky-mtn-roller-haywire-lp-alternate-version
Recorded and mixed Jan – Mar 2021 at Shangri Nah Studios (Urbana, IL) by Matt Wenzel. Drums and bass at Boombox Studios (Mahomet, IL) by Caleb Means. Mastered at Louder Studios by Tim Green.
Cover art by Luke Whitlatch. Band logo by Infected Arts. Photo by Jordan Whitten.
The LP is released in an edition of 300 copies on black vinyl. An alternate cover version with screen printed sleeve is available in an edition of 30 copies.
July 31 – Asheville, NC at Fleetwoods w Thelma And The Sleaze and Forteza Aug 4 – Pittsburgh, PA at Rock Room w Mower * Aug 5 – Brooklyn, NY at Our Wicked Lady w CT Hu$tle and the Mu$cle, and Mick’s Jaguar * Aug 6 – Philadelphia, PA at Kung Fu Necktie w Purling Hiss * Aug 7 – Richmond, VA at Cobra Cabana w Sinister Haze and Wetwork * * w Limousine Beach
Rocky Mtn Roller: Zachariah Blackwell – Guitar and Vocals Ruby Roberts – Guitar and Vocals Luke Whitlatch – Bass Alex Cabrera – Drums Mad Dog Wenzlo – Synths
Haywireis an apt name for the debut album from North Carolinian classic heavy rockers Rocky Mtn Roller. Set to release Sept. 12 through the e’er-reliable Who Can You Trust? Records in a first edition of 300 LPs, the album runs a raucous seven songs and 37 minutes as a hazy-eyed follow-up to the band’s 2020 self-titled demo/EP (review here), which came out as a split with Dallas’ Temptress and resounded like a clarion to scuzzer heads looking for boogie rock delivered with a metaller’s edge.
The impending Haywire follows suit, tapping NWOBHM dual-guitar action in service to a style that’s not about either its own indulgence or chestbeating. My friends, what you have here is primo rock shenanigans. Chicanery, even! I tell you they’re up to some nonsense here, and surely any and all squares who bear witness will do so with clutched pearls and raised eyebrows.
The PR wire references Thin Lizzy below among influences, and you’re going to hear that in “Haywire” from Haywire for sure, before and after the slowdown in the second half sets the stage for intertwining leads. The title-track of the album is premiering below to mark the opening of preorders ahead of Sept. 12, and while elsewhere they might rock like Nebula lost in the woods — that’s a compliment — the first audio to come from the LP represents it exceedingly well.
Rocky Mtn Roller have a long weekender coming up in August that will take them to Pittsburgh, New York, Philadelphia and Richmond, VA — with Adam Kriney (The Golden Grass, La Otracina, the tour poster, etc.) filling in on drums — and more info on those shows follows as well, along with more info and album preorder links:
ROCKY MTN ROLLER – Haywire LP
(Out September 12th 2022)
Appropriately named after a make shift rat trap used in the backcountry cabins of the Rocky Mountains; RMR is grimey vibes, soaring guitar with gutteral vocals. Influences like Alice Cooper, The Stooges, Thin Lizzy, and Blue Oyster Cult can be heard. Including past members of Danava and Lecherous Gaze.
Recorded and mixed Jan – Mar 2021 at Shangri Nah Studios (Urbana, IL) by Matt Wenzel. Drums and bass at Boombox Studios (Mahomet, IL) by Caleb Means. Mastered at Louder Studios by Tim Green.
Cover art by Luke Whitlatch. Band logo by Infected Arts. Photo by Jordan Whitten.
The LP is released in an edition of 300 copies on black vinyl. An alternate cover version with screen printed sleeve is available in an edition of 30 copies.
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY HERE: http://whocanyoutrustrec.bigcartel.com/product/rocky-mtn-roller-haywire-lp
PRE-ORDER THE LIMITED ALTERNATE COVER VERSION HERE: http://whocanyoutrustrec.bigcartel.com/product/rocky-mtn-roller-haywire-lp-alternate-version
Rocky Mtn Roller live: July 31 – Asheville, NC at Fleetwoods w Thelma And The Sleaze and Forteza Aug 4 – Pittsburgh, PA at Rock Room w Mower * Aug 5 – Brooklyn, NY at Our Wicked Lady w CT Hu$tle and the Mu$cle, and Mick’s Jaguar * Aug 6 – Philadelphia, PA at Kung Fu Necktie w Purling Hiss * Aug 7 – Richmond, VA at Cobra Cabana w Sinister Haze and Wetwork * * w Limousine Beach
Rocky Mtn Roller: Zachariah Blackwell – Guitar and Vocals Ruby Roberts – Guitar and Vocals Luke Whitlatch – Bass Alex Cabrera – Drums Mad Dog Wenzlo – Synths
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 25th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Asheville, North Carolina, scuzzriffers Rocky Mtn Roller issued their self-titled demo/EP (review here) on March 20, which was about 10 days before the state started locking down because of the covid-19 pandemic. Like everything that happened over the course of the next two months musically, if you missed it, you automatically get a pass. Suffice it to say, the buzz-tone, raw-as-chop-meat offering earned its subsequent tape release as a split with Texas’ Temptress, and its four songs wreaked brash havoc that was as much drunk as it was fun.
The four-piece, which boasts pedigree connections to the likes of Danava and Lecherous Gaze through guitarist/vocalist Zach Blackwell, have a new video “When I’m a Pile,” which is laden with a dopey, drunk, ultra-budget horror charm that’s only accented by the fact that the werewolf wears glasses. You get to see “innards” thrown on a grill with some hot dogs. You get to see the band crushing some beers in the woods while playing the song. You get to see the transition from hesher to werewolf that — in what seems a likely inside gag — includes multiple shots of hair poking out of various parts of jean shorts. It kind of makes me wish I had friends or, you know, fun.
But anyhoozle, it’s under four minutes and whether you heard the demo/EP or not, I don’t think you’ll regret watching it, even with the little bit of strobe that pops up. The song, “When I’m a Pile,” has that kind of odd, just-off phrasing to it that recalls The Stooges‘ “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog” — though of course they were playing off Rolling Stones via Beatles — and I’m not sure it’s fitting with the band’s aesthetic to consider that kind of thing conscious, like it’s part of some master plan to evoke the origin points of US heavy punk, but I’ll say it fits awfully well.
One way or the other, enjoy the video:
Rocky Mtn Roller, “When I’m a Pile” official video
“We made budget slasher movie with babes and gore. Bon appetite!”
BIO: Four rock n roll outcast freaks dug deep to find some raw heavy throw back grooves. With Zach Blackwell, of Danava and Lecherous Gaze, playing one lead guitar and making guttural caterwaul from his vocal chords, Ruby Roberts ripping the other lead, Alex Cabrera in the drum pocket, and Luke Whitlatch, of Merx, holding steady on the bass.
Rocky Mtn Roller are: Zach Blackwell – Guitar/vocals Ruby Roberts – Guitar Luke Whitlatch – Bass Alex Cabrera – Drums
Day Three is always special when it comes to Quarterly Reviews because it’s where we hit and pass the halfway point on the way to covering 50 albums by Friday. This edition hasn’t been unpleasant at all — I’ve screened this stuff pretty hard, so I feel well prepared — but it still requires some doing to make it all come together. Basically a week’s worth. Ha.
If you haven’t found anything yet that speaks to you, I hope that changes either today, tomorrow or Friday.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Witchcraft, Black Metal
Four years ago, Witchcraft frontman/founder Magnus Pelander released a solo album under his own name called Time (review here) as a quick complement to the band’s own 2016 offering, Nucleus (review here). Pelander‘s Time was his first solo outing since a 2010 four-song EP that, for a long time, seemed like a one-off. Now, with Black Metal, Witchcraft strips down to its barest essentials — Pelander‘s voice and guitar — and he is the only performer on the seven-track/33-minute LP. Style-wise, it’s mostly sad, intimate folk, as Pelander begins with “Elegantly Expressed Depression” and tells the stories of “A Boy and a Girl,” “Sad People,” and even the key-inclusive “Sad Dog” before “Take Him Away” closes out with a bluesy guitar figure that features twice but is surrounded by a space that seems to use silence as much as music as a tool of its downer presentation. The title, obviously tongue-in-cheek, is clearly nonetheless a reference to depression, and while Pelander‘s performance is gorgeous and honest, it’s also very clearly held down by a massive emotional weight. So too, then, is the album.
Making their debut on Cruz Del Sur Music, Australia’s The Wizar’d return from the doomliest of gutters with Subterranean Exile, opening the album with the title-track’s take on capital-‘c’ Classic doom and the pre-NWOBHM-ism of Pagan Altar, Witchfinder General, and, duh, Black Sabbath. In just 35 minutes, the four-piece make the most of their raw but epic vibes, using the means of the masters to showcase their own songwriting. This is doom metal at its most traditional, with two guitars intertwining riffs and leads on “Master of the Night” and the catchy “Long Live the Dead,” but there’s a dungeon-style spirit to the solo in that track — or maybe that’s just build off of the prior interlude “Ecstatic Visions Held Within the Monastic Tower” — that sets up the speedier run of “Evil in My Heart” ahead of the seven-minute finale “Dark Fortress.” As one might hope, they cap with due lumber and ceremony befitting an LP so thoroughly, so entirely doomed, and while perhaps it will be seven years before they do another full-length, it doesn’t matter. The Wizar’d stopped time a long time ago.
A follow-up to their later-2019 single “Starve,” the three-song Mannequin release from UK progressive metallers Sail is essentially a single as well. It begins with the ‘regular’ version of the track, which careens through its sub-five minutes with a standout hook and the dual melodic vocals of guitarists Tim Kazer and Charlie Dowzell. This is followed by “Mannequin [Synthwave Remix],” which lives up to its name, and brings bassist Kynan Scott to the fore on synth, replacing the drums of Tom Coles with electronic beats and the guitars with keyboards. The chorus works remarkably well. As fluidly as “Mannequin” fed into the subsequent remix, so too does “Mannequin [Synthwave Remix]” move directly into “Mannequin [Director’s Cut],” which ranges past the seven-minute mark and comes across rawer than the opening version. Clearly Sail knew they could get some mileage out of “Mannequin,” and they weren’t wrong. They make the most of the 16-minute occasion and keep listeners guessing where they might be headed coming off of 2017’s Slumbersong LP. Easy win.
They’re not kidding with that title. Frank Sabbath‘s Compendium covers four years of studio work — basic improvisations done in 2016 plus overdubs over time — and the resulting freakout is over an hour and a half long. Its 14 component pieces run a gamut of psychedelic meandering, loud, quiet, fast, slow, spacey, earthy, whatever you’re looking for, there’s time for it all. The French trio were plenty weird already on 2017’s Are You Waiting? (review here), but the scales are tipped here in the extended “La Petite Course à Vélo” (11:16) and “Bermuda Cruise” (17:21) alone, never mind on the Middle Eastern surf of “Le Coucous” or the hopping bass and wah of “Gallus Crackus” and “L’Oeufou.” The band has issued live material in the past, and whatever they do, it’s pretty jammy, but Compendium specifically highlights this aspect of their sound, shoving it in front of the listener and daring them to take it on. If you’re mind’s not open, it might be by the time you’re done.
Scream of the Butterfly made a raucous debut in with 2017’s Ignition (review here), and Birth Death Repeat stays the course of bringing Hammond organ to the proceedings of melodically arranged ’90s-style heavy rock, resulting in a cross-decade feel marked by sharp tones and consistency of craft that’s evident in the taut executions of “The Devil is by My Side” and “Higher Place” before the more moderately-paced “Desert Song” takes hold and thickens out the tones accordingly. ‘Desert,’ as it were, is certainly an influence throughout, as the opener’s main riff feels Kyuss-derived and the later “Driven” has a fervent energy behind it as well. The latter is well-placed following the ballad “Soul Giver,” the mellower title-track interlude, and the funky but not nearly as propulsive “Turned to Stone.” They’ll soon close out with the bluesy “I’ve Seen it Coming,” but before they do, “Room Without Walls” brings some marked solo shred and a grungier riff that scuffs up the band’s collective boot nicely, emphasizing that the record itself is less mundane than it might at first appear or the title might lead one to believe.
From minimalist drone to experimental folk, Slow Draw‘s Gallo sets a wide-open context for itself from the outset, a quick voice clip and the churning drone of “Phase 2” leading into the relatively straightforward “No Words” — to which there are, naturally, lyrics. Comprised solely of Mark Kitchens, also known for drumming in the duo Stone Machine Electric, Slow Draw might be called an experimentalist vehicle, but that doesn’t make Gallo any less satisfying. “No Words” and “Falling Far” and the just-acoustic-and-voice closer “End to That” serve as landmarks along the way, touching ground periodically as pieces like the strumming “Harvey’s Chair” and the droned-out “Industrial Aged” play off each other and “Angelo” — homage to Badalamenti, perhaps — the minimal “A Conflict” and “Tumoil” [sic] and “Playground” tip the balance to one side or another, the penultimate krautdrone of “Phase 1” unveiling perhaps what further manipulation turned into “Phase 2” earlier in the proceedings. At 33 minutes, Gallo feels careful not to overstay its welcome, and it doesn’t.
Belfast’s Baleful Creed present a crisp 10 tracks of well-composed, straightforward, doom-tinged heavy rock and roll — they call it ‘doom blues boogie,’ and fair enough — with their third long-player, The Lowdown. They’re not pretending to be anything they’re not and offering their sounds to the listener not in some grand statement of aesthetic accomplishment, and not as a showcase of whatever amps they purchased to make their sound, but instead simply for what they are: songs. Crafted, honed, thought-out and brought to bear with vitality and purpose to give the band the best representation possible. Front-to-back, The Lowdown sounds not necessarily overthought, but professional enough to be called “cared about,” and whether it’s the memorable opening with “Mr. Grim” or the ’90s C.O.C. idolatry of “Tramalamapam” or the strong ending salvo of “End Game,” with its inclusion of piano, the mostly-subdued but swaggering “Line of Trouble” and the organ-topped closer “Southgate of Heaven,” Baleful Creed never veer too far from the central purpose of their priority on songwriting, and neither do they need to.
Though he’s still best known as the frontman of Samsara Blues Experiment, Christian Peters — aka Surya Kris Peters — has become a prolific solo artist as well. The vinyl-ready eight songs/37 minutes of O Jardim Sagrado meet him in his element, bringing together psychedelia, drone and synthesizer/keyboard effects to convey various moods and ideas. As with most of the work done under the Surya Kris moniker, he doesn’t add vocals, but the album wants nothing for expression just the same, whether it’s the Bouzouki on “Endless Green” or the guest contribution of voice from Monika Saint-Oktobre on the encompassing 11-minute title-track, which would be perfect for a dance hall if dance halls were also religious ceremonies. Experiments and explorations like “Celestial Bolero” and “Saudade” bring electric guitar leads and Mellotron-laced wistfulness, respectively, while after the title-cut, the proggy techno of “Blue Nebula” gives way to what might otherwise be a boogie riff on closer “Southern Sunrise.” Peters always seems to find a way to catch the listener off guard. Maybe himself too.
A strong if raw debut from Oakland three-piece Slow Phase, this 39-minute eight-tracker presents straight-ahead classic American heavy rock and roll in the style of acts like a less garage The Brought Low, a looser-knit Sasquatch or any number of bands operating under the Ripple Music banner. Less burly than some, more punk than others, the power trio includes guitarist Dmitri Mavra of Skunk, as well as vocalist/bassist Anthony Pulsipher of Spidermeow and vocalist/drummer Richard Stuverud, the rhythm section adding to the blues spirit and spiraling manic jangle of “Blood Circle.” Opener “Starlight” was previously issued as a teaser single for the album, and stands up to its position here, with the eponymous “Slow Phase” backing its strength of hook. “Psychedelic Man” meanders in its lead section, as it should, and the catchy “Silver Fuzz” sets up the riotous “Midnight Sun” and “No Time” to lead into the electric piano of “Let’s Do it Again (For the First Time),” which I’d kind of take as a goof were it not for the righteous jam that finishes it, referencing “Highway Star” during its fadeout. Some organizing to do, but they obviously know what they’re shooting for.
This band might actually be more cohesive than they want to be. A double-guitar four-piece from Asheville, North Carolina, with a connection to cult heroes Lecherous Gaze via six-stringer Zach Blackwell — joined in the band by guitarist Ruby Roberts, bassist Luke Whitlatch and drummer Alex Cabrera — they’re playing to a certain notion of brashness as an ideal, but while the vocals have a drunk-fuckall stoner edge, the construction of the songs underlying is unremittingly sound on this initial EP. “Monster” opens with a welcome hook and “When I’m a Pile” sounds classic-tinged enough to be a heavy ’70s nod, but isn’t so easily placed to a specific band as to be called derivative. The longest of the four cuts at 5:30, “Bald Faced Hornet” boasts some sting in its snare sound, but the Southern heavy push at its core makes those dueling solos in the second half all the more appropriate, and closing out, “She Ran Off with the Dealer” has both charm and Thin Lizzy groove, which would basically be enough on their own to get me on board. A brazen and blazing candidate for Tee Pee Records‘ digital annex, if someone else doesn’t snag them first.
A holdover from their March 2020 self-titled debut EP (review here), “Monster” begins with a quick flash of lysergic synth and fulfills that promise with a steady current of wah and later shove, and as they careen through “Part Time Rocker” and “Protocol” toward “Sun Setting Pink” — the closer and longest song at 6:35 — the payoff is there in the energy of their delivery as well as the manifestation of the underlying breadth of craft. That is to say, they at last reveal they’ve known all along what they’re doing and declare themselves ready to ride twyn Skynyrd leads into the song’s titular sunset, which they do until the last shimmering guitars are gone behind whatever the name of that hill is over there. And that final minute’s stretch, following head-spinning drum fills from Alex Cabrera and the must-you-go-so-soon momentary departure of bassist Luke Whitlatch (who also did the album cover), reinforces the message way back in “Automatons in the Sky” that Rocky Mtn Roller are nowhere near as simple in terms of overarching style as they might at first appear, and that as raw as this first LP is, and as focused as the band are on harnessing forward momentum in propelling you from one end to the other, they do so not without being mindful of atmosphere and with an inventive conversation between the guitars, bass, drums, vocals, and sometimes keys.
