Sea of Snakes – ‘World on Fire EP’ (Metal Assault Records)

Sea of Snakes – ‘World on Fire EP’ (Metal Assault Records)

Sea of Snakes are the latest signing to LA based Metal Assault Records and ‘World on Fire’ is their debut EP. The band consist of drummer Jeff Murray (Ex- the Shrine), guitarist Jim McCloskey (Ex – Motorsickle), bassist Mick Coffman and vocalist Tracy Steiger (Ex- Saul of Tarsus). Their aim is to “be loud, be heavy, and do what the fuck we want,”.

They certainly are loud and heavy, with a sound akin to classic Sabbath, Corrosion of Conformity, Down and Alice In Chains they have offered up an impressive debut that left me wanting to hear more. If you’re a fan of the aforementioned bands then you really should check out Sea of Snakes.

The band recorded the EP at the famous Total Access studio where such luminaries as St Vitus, Dio, Guns N Roses and Black Flag have recorded in the past. Studio owner Wyn Davis produced the EP and it has a great, thick, and sludgy sound. The cover art with skulls with snakes coming out of them is a good indication of what Sea of Snakes sound like. Opening track ‘Let the Fire Burn’ has the swagger and chug of Vol 4 era Black Sabbath, a real head banger. The rhythm section of Murray and Coffman really take the lead here with lots of swooshing crash cymbals and tom fills and thumping bass. McCloskey is no slouch in the guitar department either with plenty of wah pedal action. I really hope he was wearing bell bottoms whilst recording this! The accompanying animated video for the track is fantastic, full of snakes and winged demons. Of course!

‘Ride the Line’ is a more up-tempo affair with lyrics about lights in the sky and guns in hand. White Zombie comes to mind here with Steiger barking out the vocals with the rest of the band pounding away to their hearts content. ‘Son of Man’ is next up with more tasteful use of the wah pedal and vocalist Steiger sounds like Scott Weiland in parts here. That’s certainly no bad thing! The ‘take no bullshit’ lyrics fit the track perfectly and there’s more groove-laden drumming from Murray.

‘Fear Behind the Stare’ starts off innocently enough with some clean, almost pretty guitar work from McCloskey before another pulverising riff kicks in. The final track ‘Drink Your Teeth’ has a ‘Facelift’ era Alice In Chains feel to it with its solid backbeat and dream-like guitar tones. The track flows seamlessly into a thrashy crescendo with Steiger screaming like Cobain on ‘Territorial Pissings’

When the EP was finished, I really wanted to hear more and felt like I’d just got started with my Sea of Snakes journey. This is a solid effort from the band and I eagerly await to see what comes next from these guys.

Buy the EP Here

Author: Kenny Kendrick

Jesus Chrüsler Supercar – ‘Lücifer’ (Dr. Music Records)

Jesus Chrüsler Supercar – ‘Lücifer’ (Dr. Music Records)

 

“Do you believe in Jesus? Well, you’re gonna need him…”

Swedish death ‘n’ roll mofos Jesus Chrüsler Supercar blew me away with their debut long player, 2013’s ‘Among The Ruins And Desolate Lands’, and if that vicious slab of noise was a spree killing then its follow-up, 2016’s must-have ’35 Supersonic’, was a premeditated exercise in cold-blooded rock bludgeoning. How could the nefarious band members – Robban Bergeskans (vocals/bass), Nicke Forsberg (drums), Pär Jaktholm (guitar) and Tobbe Engdahl (guitar) – ever hope to top that? Well, they’ve gone for broke with their third album by being in league with Satan himself.

 

Named after the ultimate anti-establishment figure, ‘Lücifer’ is an eleven-track horned beast of a record that grabs the band’s grubby take on the legendary Stockholm Sound and rubs its nose ever-blacker in the filthiest, most glorious sonic hell this side of the Seven Gates.

 

That Stockholm Sound? It comes, as it did on the previous two albums, via the Scandinavian supremacy of über producer, Tomas Skogsberg (The Hellacopters, Entombed, I could go on for days). Drummer Nicke’s brother, Fred Forsberg, mixed the record and, in the search for a thuggish American tone to throw into the muscle car melting pot, Brad Boatright (Converge, Corrosion Of Conformity) undertook the mastering. The results are MASSIVE.

 

This record is housed within four gargantuan walls of guitar. From the opening seconds of the album’s opening (and title) track, no listener will dare keep his or her head still lest they be judged by El Diablo himself. Wood splinters, foundations shake, and auditory canals take an unholy amount of abuse as shit-kicking, brain cell-killing tracks like ‘Flesh ‘n’ Bones’, ‘High Times For Low Crimes’, ‘Never Sleep Again’, and ‘Boogeyman’ grab the speakers by the throat with zero intention of letting go.

 

Side One of the record – entitled ‘First Testament’ – motors along like Dennis Hopper has wired up a bomb to it, but Side Two – ‘Second Commandments’ – does offer the briefest moments of respite: the speeding strut smudged into a sludgier swagger on tracks like ‘Straight To Hell’. A major tour with heavyweights Clutch can do that to a band, I guess. Album closer ‘Black Blood’ is a revelation too: a murder ballad of grandiose proportions that I imagine few would have thought possible from this eight-legged, turbo-charged behemoth of a band. The impressively-titled ‘You Can’t Spell Diesel Without Die’ restores the balance on this fearsome flip-side, however.

 

For fans of Motörhead, Entombed, and Chrome Division, and just about anyone who likes their music as badass as Beelzebub, and their many guitars chugged like their many beers. It’s Death Race 2019 and this is the soundtrack. Buy it and play it like you stole it.

Buy Lücifer Here

Author: Gaz Tidey