Clutch - Psychic Warfare album review

Clutch has been around for over 20 years but have never really made it big in the mainstream. They had their biggest hit in 2013 with Earth Rocker and are back in 2015 with Psychic Warfare; and there's no reason why it can't be massive!



For the fourth time - previously on albums Pure Rock Fury, Blast Tyrant and Earth Rocker - the boys from Clutch are working with producer Machine (aka Gene Freeman), and you can tell from the sound. It's crisp, well engineered but most importantly, organic and raw. The sound you hear on the album is the sound that was in the studio on the day of recording and that's something I really enjoy. To get the most out of the sound of this album, I would really recommend listening to it on vinyl, it'll really improve your experience!

To find out more about their recording process on Psychic Warfare, you can check out this YouTube video about the production of the album - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6jaPniwW6c

The album opens with a very short interlude in which lead singer Neil Fallon is speaking and to open the second track says, "Let's start at the beginning".

The second track is the single from the album; X-ray Visions. If you're not used to Clutch's style prior to listening to the song, you sure will be after. It explodes into the ears and delivers bold blues rock and riff-age from start to finish.

Firebirds comes next in much the same vein as X-ray Visions with two notable exceptions. Fallon's vocals are definitely tested in this one, especially when he screams the title during the chorus, but boy does he knock it for six! I would describe Fallon's vocals as similar to that of Lemmy's in that he's either shouting or not shouting - the difference here is Fallon sounds a lot better when he does.

There's not much to say on A Quick Death In Texas except Clutch turn on the blues even more and it's just incredible to listen to. With groove, swagger and solo to match, it takes on a life of it's own and is a joy to absorb.

Sucker For The Witch probably has the coolest riff on Psychic Warfare, starting as a bass intro from Dan Maines and then joined by the guitar, it rises and drops and rolls producing a seriously sexy rhythm. The chorus riff fits in perfectly too before Sult produces yet another tremendous solo that leaves you in true wonderment of this brilliant piece of song writing.

Track three may have a familiar feel to fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as the verse has a sound resembling Give It Away. After the verse though it's straight back to Clutch and once again we get a riff-tastic chorus and blistering solo from Sult (to be honest I don't think he knows how not to do a blistering solo!).

Doom Saloon is an instrumental interlude and has a very wild west feel to it, with a single strumming guitar that is joined by a distorted, echoing guitar over the top which follows directly into Our Lady Of Electric Light.

Our Lady Of Electric Light is step back from the band. Not as frantic or heavy as the previous tracks but just as riffy and could be called an adventure into the psychedelic side of the blues. The lead guitar sound is quite reminiscent of Link Wray's, Rumble, as the sound shimmers and echoes around Fallon's slow, plodding lyrics.

Track nine, Noble Savage, is a revisit to what Clutch do best after a couple of slower tunes; heavy, riffed up blues with Fallon in good old shouting form on the mic. At barely two minutes 50 seconds, this is a real barnstormer of a song and is 100mph all the way through, giving drummer Jean-Paul Gaster and bassist Maines a proper workout!

Behold The Colossus really lives up to it's name. It's a properly heavy, banging, noisey track with a good amount of Gibson Les Paul thunder and symbol crashing thrown in for good measure. We get a brief reprieve towards the end before it all comes crashing in yet again. By all means listen to it loud but your ears won't thank you!

You don't get a rest after Behold The Colossus though. Decapitation Blues is a song that again lives up to it's name and is a constant bombardment of blues rock and heavy riffs. It's fantastic and is the reason I love Clutch!

The twelfth and final track on Psychic Warfare is a real side step to what we're used to from Clutch. We've heard glimpses of southern rock on previous albums but nothing as 'deep south' as Son Of Virginia (although the name should give you a clue). Not only is it a side step in terms of music style but also in terms of track length. The longest track in the previous eleven isn't even four minutes long and now we get a six minute marathon. And it's not like it gets lost in it's own length either. It paces itself with a slow verse and only increases the pace in the chorus, when the music really comes alive and gives us a heavy dose of rattling drums and crunchy guitars.

Verdict - 9/10
I really, really love this album. It's got everything you want from a blues rock band and more besides. The only thing I feel is missing is more minutes. It's only 39 minutes long, including the interludes at the beginning and end, and for me it needs to be longer. More tracks could be the answer but with 12 already on there I would say it's more a fact of extending the songs a bit more. Sure they're all brilliantly written and recorded tracks but three minutes just feels a little bit short for some of them - notably Noble Savage. I won't let that take too much away from this album though, as otherwise it's all pretty much flawless, and give it a really high 9/10.

SPECTRE - film review

After nine years, four films, six Bond girls and several shootouts, we arrive at the cinematical knot that ties together the Daniel Craig era of James Bond; SPECTRE.



SPECTRE promotional poster

SPECTRE picks up almost immediately after M's death at the end of Skyfall, with MI5 and MI6 in the process of being merged by Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), aka "C", as the British Government attempt to put more focus on data analysis and surveillance and less on 'the man in the field'. It's due to this that for entire span of the film Bond appears to be operating completely rogue behind the back of the new "M" (Ralph Fiennes), whilst employing the help of "Q" (Ben Wishaw) and Miss Moneypenny (Naomi Harris) remotely.

After removing a ring from the finger of an assailant in Mexico City during the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival, Bond embarks on a journey to find out what the symbol on it refers to and who leads this mystery organisation; which by the end of the film we know to be SPECTRE and Bond's most infamous enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz). It was also revealed in an interesting plot twist that Blofeld's Father took in James when his parents died and ever since Blofeld felt ignored and so killed his Father and faked his own death.

I referred to SPECTRE being the knot that ties the Daniel Craig era of Bond together at the beginning and here is why I said that. Every villain 007 came up against - Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene, Raoul Silva and Mr. White - were employed by Blofeld to affect the world in some way but when Bond inevitably saved the day and squandered his plans, Blofeld then punished Bond by killing his love interest in each case; most notably Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in Casino Royale.

SPECTRE as a spectacle is a phenomenal sight to behold, taking us through the typical Bond travelogue; Italy, Austria, Mexico and of course, London. The camera work is just beautiful and even during the intense hyper car chase between Bond - in a prototype Aston Martin DB10 (which ironically was intended for 009 but he stole), and SPECTRE henchman Mr. Hinx (former WWE wrestler, Dave Baustista), in the Jaguar C-X75 - the film still manages to portray the tightness and quaintness of the back streets of Rome with even a little comedy involved at the expense of an old Italian man driving a Fiat 500 that gets in the way of Bond's escape.

For me the most jaw dropping moment in the film is opening set piece. The aforementioned Dia de Muerta, looks so good while at the same time looking like it was a nightmare to organise, what with over 2000 extras to direct. In the opening scene, which is a single stunning four and half minute sweeping shot, we are taken down into the melee in the streets of Mexico City, where we see Bond in a skull mask, and up into a hotel where Bond leaves his mistress in the room and heads out onto the balcony in search of his target. It's so smooth and unprecedented in a film with such a huge budget where you expect cuts to fly by as quickly as your eye can blink.

Although rated 12A, there are a couple of moments you probably wouldn't want your pre-teen watching on the big screen; the scene when Mr. Hinx claws out the eyes of a SPECTRE member and when Blofeld is drilling into the side of Bond's skull. The latter moment was particularly 'superhero' ish, in that one minute Bond was getting drills in his skull and the next he was running from the guards and shooting each of them in the open whilst not even receiving a scratch from their machine guns or showing signs of a headache!

I only have one reservation about an otherwise brilliant film and that's the character of Madeline Swan as portrayed by Lea Seydoux. It's not so much the character itself that I have the frustration with, more the accent of Seydoux. As the daughter of Mr. White you'd assume she'd be English, and there's no mention of her Mother being French, but instead we hear a mixture of Queen's English in some scenes and sloppy English with a French accent in others - and it's very confusing!

Finally, and this isn't really a complaint about the film so much, the theme song as performed by Sam Smith that I reviewed a few days ago does fit into the context of the film lyrically but that by no means changes my mind on it. I still think it's a wretched song but annoyingly it does fit.

Verdict - 9/10
Ever since Daniel Craig stepped into the shoes of 007 in 2006 for Casino Royale, the franchise has been keen to shed more light on Bond's past and plunge into the depths of his at times dark character.

2012 was the turning point, when after the disappointment of Quantum Of Solace, director Sam Mendes came on board to produce the most commercially successful James Bond film of all time; Skyfall. After Skyfall became the 14th highest grossing film world wide of all time, raking in £1.109 billion at the box office, it may have seemed an impossible task to make a film to build on what went before and even to out do it. With SPECTRE though, I believe Mendes and co. have made a worthy follow-up and have avoided falling into the trap of copying what was so good about Skyfall and have instead made a film that stands perfectly well on it's own.

The combination of great camera work, excellent story and what feels like a sense of completion make this a must watch Bond flick. Enough said.

Ghost - Meliora album review

Meliora is here! The much anticipated third album from Swedish heavy Metal band, Ghost, along with their third Papa Emeritus.

Ghost - Meliora album cover

Ghost are a welcome difference to the Metal scene of 2015. They're the first band since Kiss in the 1970s to take their gimmick very seriously and keep their identities as secret as possible, most notably lead singer Papa Emeritus III who is known to turn up for shows just minutes before and leave immediately after. Shrouding himself and his cult of Nameless Ghouls in a thick veil of mystery - and I really like it.

Having build this image Ghost go full throttle with it and even bring it to their album artwork (see picture). At first it looks like occult ish imagery, with a dark priest looking over his domain - but on further inspection, from a distance away, is the face of Papa Emeritus III. Very clever if you ask me...

The Swedish heavy Metal group have a very unique sound, with essence of ABBA flavouring their heavy cocktail of papal appearance, occult theme and progressive, dark soundtrack. Ghost have managed to find a perfect slot in the bookshelf of 2015 Metal, combining both super heavy, almost doom Metal, with a softer progressive sound.

Ghost are known now for their sound which portrays an almost ethereal feel, very much similar to one you might associate parochially, despite Ghost's presentation being a complete juxtaposition of that theme with the dark robes and skull face mask worn by Papa.

Meliora begins with Spirit. A typical Ghost song that sets up the rest of the ten track album in safe, familiar accord.

Next are From The Pinnacle To The Pit and Cirice (either pronounced Cherryche or Sirice?) both of which are brilliantly constructed. FTPTTP features an excellent, rocking opening bass line that then opens up the rest of the song which treats us to beautiful harmonics that Ghost are so well known for delivering. Cirice is similar to the previous track in that it's one of the longest tracks on the album and also musically it's phenomenal. Where it differs though is in it's timing. From verse to pre chorus to chorus and back to verse it isn't scarred to mess with it's own rhythm and timing and instead uses it's own atmosphere to lead the experience.

After these two incredible tracks Ghost turn their approach on it's head with a minute long, spooky acoustic number called Spöksonat that acts as an interlude before Ghost's creative juices get flowing on tracks five and six.

On said tracks five and six, we are given two songs that demonstrate the polar opposites musically that Ghost are able to achieve. Firstly, the progressive Metal ballad He Is and then the extremely dark, powerful Mummy Dust.

Much like Spirit, Majesty is a solid track and fits well into the overall flow of the album.

The next track bring two words together rarely seen in pairing; Devil Church. It's another minutely interlude that clears the palate and prepares you for the all encompassing darkness that proceeds.

Absolution is a great song in it's own right, and will probably sit just below Cirice in the singles pecking order, but brings it's own intimidating sound to the party that sets it apart from the rest of the album. The way that it builds and is structured makes it catchy without it being obviously designed to be so, showing that Ghost can write impressive songs without making a conscious effort to produce something that makes the listener sit back in amazement.

The ending of the album comes about via Deus In Absentia, and brilliantly so. This track brings together exactly what Ghost are all about; theatrics, parochial backing vocals and progressive Metal. So theatrical in fact, it sounds like it could have been pulled straight from Phantom Of The Opera.

Verdict - 8/10
I had to listen to Meliora a few times before I "got it". Due to it being progressive in nature you have to listen carefully to get all the messages and musical flavours and that cannot be done properly on one listen alone. I've given it three or four goes on the turn table and I must say it grows with every one. It may not be an outstanding Metal album but in it's own way it's a statement of intent from Ghost as to what they are capable of and is a great demonstration of progressive Metal setting a standard in 2015.

The Strypes bring A* performance on Norwich Waterfront debut

Having already seen The Strypes once before this year (5 May at The Portland Arms, Cambridge - http://ramblingsofanessexlad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-strypes-rock-is-alive-and-kicking.html) I knew what kind of show the audience and I were in for. And despite not being sold out, The Strypes made their Norwich Waterfront debut on Wednesday in smashing fashion!

Perhaps due to it being The Strypes' debut in Norwich, the organisers had put on not one but two warm ups bands; fellow Irish rockers 'The Mighty Stef' and local alternative band 'Secret From Richard'.

Secret From Richard
Unsurprisingly, being on two hours before the main event, Secret From Richard didn't have much of an audience but none the less put on a decent set. They remind me very much of Kings Of Leon i.e. interesting musical arrangement but nothing too remarkable in the lyrics and vocals department. I'll give their drummer a lot of credit; he'd definitely studied some John Bonham tapes!

The Mighty Stef
My friend Dan had seen The Mighty Stef before as the warm up band for Irish punk band Flogging Molly about two years previously and was very complementary about them and to be honest they weren't half bad. If I had to summon up a comparative artist I'd probably say U2 are as close as I can get. An aside, and rather distracting in an amusing way, is that the lead singer of The Mighty Stef had a haircut very similar to Howard Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory...

I probably wouldn't mind seeing The Mighty Stef again. Musically very alternative rock and with a great engaging stage presence I can imagine they'll break into the mainstream sooner rather than later.

The Strypes


L to R: Pete, 19, Evan, 18, Ross, 18, Josh, 20. Picture credit: Karl and Jane Dawson

I literally can't stop banging on about how good The Strypes are! From first hearing their debut record Snapshot I was hooked. The raw rock 'n' roll they emit is so refreshing and I imagine the feeling is similar to how people my age felt the first time they saw The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and other such ground-breaking bands in the early 1960s. Their combination of everything that's great from the 60s and 70s, i.e. rock, blues, R&B (the old kind not rap kind), and punk, portrays them in a way that means you get a taste of all those brilliant bands rolled into one. And it's just fantastic to watch live!

For a group of four lads in which one has only just turned 20, one 19 and the lead singer and drummer are still the tender age of 18, it's incredible how experienced these guys act on stage. Ross Farrelly, the lead singer, for example, shows the frontman-ship of a performer twice his age and is even more stunning when you know that for years he's worn very, very black sunglasses because he's so nervous of going on stage.

Josh McClorey on lead guitar. Picture credit: Karl and Jane Dawson

One member of The Strypes who doesn't have such reserve is lead guitarist, and oldest head, Josh McClorey. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say this guy has serious skills with six strings! Having seen them in May I knew exactly how good he is, however since then the young Irish axeman appears to have added quite a bit of showmanship into his repertoire - the inventiveness of the kid is just a joy to behold. He may have borrowed a move from Hendrix, Page, SRV and the like but seeing a guy play a solo behind his back live is still jaw dropping to watch whoever's doing it. A gimmick I'd never seen before was laying the guitar on the floor and playing it like a lap steel, except instead of a slide Josh used his fingers (imagine him with his hands in a piano playing position), which add in the plethora of effects pedals he was using made for incredible, heavy, distorted, masterfully controlled chaos.

Evan and Ross. Picture credit: Karl and Jane Dawson

Back to the start of the gig itself, and after some momentary apprehension, the boys began with the bouncing, banging, riff-tastic track Eighty-Four from the new record Little Victories and with that the nervous energy amongst the crowd soon turned into whooping, foot stomping and applause. The Strypes clearly picked up on this and notched up the intensity a few clicks, thriving off the newfound admiration coming their way. Ross was without his signature sunglasses and early on Pete mimed through the cacophony of noise, "where are your glasses?" with Ross replying with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders; clearly after more than three years of touring Ross feel confident enough to just get on with the show. For the first few songs he didn't really know where to look, however soon after embraced having a few hundred people staring at him and took to it like a true rock star.

As for the set list, it was non stop full throttle from start to finish and played through a selection of tracks both old and new, including a couple I hadn't heard before off their first EP. They went off, only for the Norwich crowd to scream and bay "MORE!!!". Of course The Strypes obliged and performed an encore of three songs ending with the crowd favourite Bo Diddley cover, You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover.

One of my favourite moments from the gig was during the encore when Josh said: "We're going to play you a slow Leonard Cohen song now, just to warm you up again". That 'slow Leonard Cohen song' turned out to be in fact the opposite; their fast paced, punk driven, hard rock track from the Flat Out EP - Kick Out The Jams! The thing I find so great about Kick Out The Jams is the insanely fast bass line Pete bangs out. As a player of a bass myself I was trying to follow it to see how to play it but even standing at the very front of the stage watching his fingers whizz around the fret board was confusing.

To say it was an excellent gig wouldn't do the show justice; it was purely and simply everything you want in a rock 'n' roll gig. I've been to a number of performances this year and I would easily put this one second in the list only to AC/DC at Wembley in July. I mean c'mon it's AC/DC! The Strypes aren't that good...yet.