Empowerment through sludge? Maybe. It’s as good a bet as anything I can give you, for sure. And Red Beard Wall make a fairly compelling case with The Fight Needs Us All, from which the new video for “Tell Me the Future of Existence” comes. The question the song is asking, “Can we destroy the world to save it/Or do we worship it to raise it?” feels particularly relevant for a reality that has changed shape multiple times over since Argonauta Records released the album in Feb. 2019. Remember how simple things were when we were only locking kids in cages? Ah, those were the days… also of horror.

Anyhoo, I have no doubt that by now you’ve dug into The Fight Needs Us All one way or the other, and in so doing, taken at least a core sample of what it is that the band’s founder, songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Aaron Wall has on offer in terms of blending sludge with more aggressive groove-style chugging. His rasp reminds of Kenny Bones of Negative Reaction and his oft-intertwined clean vocals almost speak to a rawer Page Hamilton — at least to my child-of-’90s-aggro ears — but for what’s essentially a one-man outfit with George Trujillo playing drums live, there’s more than enough subtlety to the changes from one moment to the next to hold fickle listeners despite both the scathe and the relatively barebones production that, one suspects, does little to encompass the full tonal breadth Red Beard Wall bring on stage, despite lacking no impact in itself. That is to say, when the bounce of “To My Queen” hits into the nod, I’d imagine that standing in front of the speaker cabinets it might sound like oblivion, and intentionally so.

And if one has to go out, there are certainly worse ways. “Tell Me the Future of Existence” appears late in The Fight Needs Us All, between “Reign of Ignorance” and the closing title-track, and if the theme is having something to say, Wall certainly passes muster. As Wall explained in his recent days of rona and notes again below, a new Red Beard Wall album is in progress to follow-up The Fight Needs Us All, though perhaps since touring would seem to be something of an impossibility, perhaps it’s all the better that the still-current full-length gets the excuse for a revisit that the new video provides. Aside from the message of the song itself, which, again, is nothing if not an apt description of the times in which we live, even as those times seem to morph daily into unforeseen surrealities, and the visual accompaniment given in images of mass protest and rallying for righteous causes, the track rocks. That always helps too, as far as I’m concerned.

More to come on the new Red Beard Wall when I hear (of) it. Until then, enjoy “Tell Me the Future of Existence” below, followed by a few words from Wall himself:

Red Beard Wall, “Tell Me the Future of Existence” official video premiere

Aaron Wall on “Tell Me the Future of Existence”:

“As we record and put finishing touches on the new RBW album, we thought it very apropos and vital to release this video/song to the world. While it was written over two years ago, it speaks to NOW more than I could’ve imagined. We humbly ask ALL, to listen, stand up, and ACT. Revolt. Revolt. Revolt. Revolution is ours. The Fight Needs Us All. ALL LOVE. ALL RESPECT. ALL HAIL!!!”

Red Beard Wall, The Fight Needs Us All (2019)

Red Beard Wall on Thee Facebooks

Red Beard Wall on Instagram

Red Beard Wall on Bandcamp

Argonauta Records website

Argonauta Records on Thee Facebooks

Tags: Argonauta Records, Plainview, Red Beard Wall, Red Beard Wall The Fight Needs Us All, Texas, The Fight Needs Us All

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2020 at 7:42 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.