It’s the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and I’m not in the mood to write an introduction…
Philadelphia’s grimmest Franzia enthusiast, The Necrosexual, ventured up to Cherry Street Station this past Saturday night; he didn’t find any posers to slay, but he did find plenty of HEAVY METAL. Following a performance that won over the curious crowd, this blog editor somehow ended up with a copy of Necrosexual’s debut full-length Grim 1. Nasty Disaster fans, take note — this parody of a self-serious and (necro)sex-obsessed metal warrior will have you headbanging in no time.
My favorite track was “The Lair Where No Light Reaches,” about thrashing out in Grandma’s basement…. We’ve all been there. I also got a kick out of “Paint It Grim,” a take on the Rolling Stones classic. Keep an eye out for this comic outfit performing regionally, as well as the Grim One’s occasional moonlighting appearances with Tragedy: All Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees and Beyond (who have been to Connecticut twice in recent months).
And next up in a bounding leap over metal subgenres, RIFFLORD’s long-awaited sophomore release 7 Cremation Ground / Meditation comes out on December 1st. Through my writing travels I became aware of a version of the band’s history known as the “RIFFLORD STORY,” which involved lots of drugs, physical altercations, and instruments getting broken on stage. One former member in particular seemed like a major pain in the neck. By the time I got to the end, I was like, “All that sucks, why are they still even a band?”
Then I pulled up their first record on bandcamp, 2010’s self-released 26 Mean and Heavy. Oh. Wow.
So eventually “RIFFLORD 1.0” disintegrated, founding member Wyatt Bronc Bartlett moved from Minneapolis to South Dakota and married his keyboard player Tory Jean Stoddard, and the two started a family. But RIFFLORD was far from done… Some otherworldly force kept the riffs brewing as Bronc gradually put together a new lineup.
7 Cremation Ground / Meditation offers thirteen dirty, bluesy rock songs that show RIFFLORD’s determination to rise from the ashes. I imagine the Midwest as a dire place and this album would the perfect music for driving across it. Earthy female vocals (Stoddard’s?) on “Poison Mother” are a nice surprise midway through, making it my favorite track.
“Poison Mother” isn’t public yet, but the following track “Electric Grave” has been revealed and that’s a good example of the devastation RIFFLORD is serving up. If you like your rock and roll with Hammond organ and a foreboding edge, put Cremation Ground on your Christmas list!
(PS: STB Records, PLEEEEAAAAASE find someone to print CDs of this!)
Aside from the new RIFFLORD, what music is on your holiday wish list? Leave a comment!
And for more from Alternative Control, find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud, and bandcamp.
2 comments
Comments are closed.