Review & Full Album Premiere: Black Rainbows, Superskull
[Click play above to stream Superskull by Black Rainbows in its entirety. Album is out Friday on Heavy Psych Sounds.]
Collaborating with producer Fabio Sforza for the third time after 2020’s Cosmic Ritual Supertrip (review here) and 2018’s Pandaemonium (review here), Italian fuzzbringers Black Rainbows offer Superskull as their ninth full-length in 15 years, a remarkable stretch marked by growth in terms of the band’s own sonic progression and the development of their all-in, no-irony, we-do-this-for-love persona. Led by founding guitarist/vocalist Gabriele Fiori, who doubles as the head of the label and booking concern Heavy Psych Sounds — they probably have a two-day festival booked in your hometown; you should check to be sure — and triples in outfits like Killer Boogie and The Pilgrim, the band feel somewhat more settled in this third-of-three-so-far likely thanks in part to drummer Filippo Ragazzoni and bassist Edoardo “Mancio” Mancini being more settled into the lineup; Ragazzoni made his first appearance on Pandaemonium, Mancini was new for Cosmic Ritual Supertrip. On the 12 songs/59 minutes of Superskull, no one in the band is new for the first time in half a decade.
That’s not nothing in terms of dynamic, and part of the effect of that time-born familiarity between the players has resulted in a more dug-in batch of songs. Consistent with the gradual forward steps Black Rainbows have taken all along, Superskull leans into heft in songs like “Desert Sun” and the earlier “Children of Fire and Sacrifices,” the latter with a shuffle like C.O.C.‘s “The Door” in its verse and a sense of push that’s emblematic of the vitality that’s always been part of the band’s take on heavy rock. Superskull is less psychedelic than some of their output, speaking generally, but before the eight-minute “The Pilgrim Son” gets to its big-riff-screaming-solo nod in its second half, it floats through a sunny semi-acoustic ether, and the even-more-unplugged “King Snake” is backed by effects and swirls in the spirit of some of The Pilgrim‘s output, so a lysergic box is ticked in mellow fashion. But “Cosmic Ride of the Crystal Skull” hits hard on purpose with dense chug-and-mute in its intro and a return in its midsection and even the boogie that emerges in the verse, bolstered by Ragazzoni‘s fills and cymbal work, feels affected by that weight, contrasted as it is by the sample of the moon landing and other such spacey whathaveyou.
Black Rainbows are now and have ever been song-based, and from the catchy, echoing tone-establishing leadoff offered in “Apocalypse March,” that remains the case on Superskull. The difference in this collection comes in the clarity of its mission. Heavier guitar and bass ground the proceedings, and the material, which still builds momentum through “Superhero Dopeproof” and “Children of Fire and Sacrifices,” holds up to that foundation, even as the later “All the Chaos in Mine” presents a moodier atmospheric vision ahead of the last push through the Kyuss-referencing “Megalomania” and three-minute closer “Fire in the Sky” — which also appeared on last year’s Live at Desertfest Belgium (review here) — a mini space epic that seems to emphasize through its breadth the terrestrial crunch of “Till the Outerspace” or the swing-happy “Lone Wolf” in the album’s midsection, the latter with a twisting riff turned into a rolling groove that becomes a righteous wash of fuzz in its apex.
Even in its meatier sound, most of Superskull is territory the band has explored before, but never this band and never quite in this way. While playing to their strengths in craft and aesthetic, Black Rainbows distinguish their efforts with what feels like marked intent. They are the masters of their own cosmos.
Putting “Apocalypse March” first is part of that as well. Either “Fire in the Sky” or “Till the Outerspace” — which seem to be positioned as closers for the first and second halves of the record — probably could’ve opened. They’re faster, both under four minutes, etc., but in addition to the main riff of “Apocalypse March”‘s demand to be placed at the forefront, it’s a means through which the band communicate the focus on groove so prevalent throughout what follows. Swagger, swing, nod, roll, fuzz, hooks; it’s all right there in an efficient but organic summary of who Black Rainbows want to be circa 2023.
The turns and shifts in approach they present from there on, whether it’s the build-up and takeoff of “The Pilgrim Son” at 4:15 into its 8:43 and the impact thereafter — a corresponding mellow strum bookends — or “King Snake” with its stoned-pastoralia meander, or the blast of noise that pays off “All the Chaos in Mine,” not out of control and more emotionally resonant in its final chorus than Black Rainbows have ever been, work around the core of songwriting to expand the context of Superskull, the dynamic of which is revealed all the more on repeat listens.
It will, then, be superficially familiar to experienced heads, but even that familiarity stands as an analog for how much Black Rainbows have evolved over time. Whatever parallels might come up during listening — for example there’s less Nebula in Superskull than I’ve ever encountered from them before — in part because their influences have become internalized and grown as part of the band itself. They are more even more distinct for that, and Superskull is a mature work that belongs to them alone, and one they took their time in making what it is, having recorded a year ago and spent months in the mixing process.
Perhaps some of the stress on impact comes from the time in which it was made — Black Rainbows would not be the only ones to manifest some shift in approach for having lived through 2020-2022, certainly — but even if so, the direction Superskull takes is not so radically removed from where the band were three years ago as to be jarring, and if you think of them as reliable, then they remain so. Most importantly, they — this maybe-settled-into-themselves lineup incarnation — are in full control of the proceedings here, and the songs are expansive. Not without the raucousness for which they’ve become known, but assured in that and all the more able to get where they’re going with fluidity and confidence.
It’s a rocker. It rocks. Does that mean the next one won’t be a tripped-out interstellar blastwerk dripping in acid and fuzzed to the gills because yes of course it has gills? I have no idea. Wherever they end up, Black Rainbows always seem to make it a party, though, and that’s definitely the case here.
Black Rainbows, “Superhero Dopeproof” official video
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