Independent music act BlackLip debuted the lyric video for its latest single this week.
The brainchild of Alex Shimp, the act debuted the lyric video for its new single, ‘What Have I Become‘ Tuesday through INgrooves. The song is the lead single from BlackLip’s new EP, Hear My Pain. The record’s release date is under consideration.
The musical arrangement featured in BlackLip’s new single is a brooding composition. The song starts out with an almost hip-hop style approach and sound. As it progresses however, the song takes a decidedly melodic hard rock approach a la Linkin Park and The Veer Union.
The lyrical theme featured in the new single take on the familiar topic of abusive individuals, Shimp said.
“This song is about people who intentionally abuse you repeatedly whether mentally or physically, resulting in a personality change that is completely against your will,” he said. “The emotion behind the song comes from a dark place.”
The lyric video for the new single is a simple presentation. It places the song’s lyrics over a blue background as the song plays over the visualization.
More information on BlackLip’s new single, lyric video, and EP is available along with all of its latest news at:
Independent rock band Testarossa premiered its latest single and video this week.
The band kicked off the weekend by premiering its new single, ‘Welcome To the Show‘ and its companion video Friday through INgrooves/The Label Group. The song features a guest appearance by Steven Adler (Guns N’ Roses, Road Crew, Bullet Boys, Adler’s Appetite).
The musical arrangement featured in the band’s new single is, fittingly, a throwback to the sounds that made Guns N’ Roses popular and continues to make it a fan favorite. Comparisons to works from the likes of Ratt and Motley Crue are just as easy to make, considering the bombastic guitar riffs, powerhouse drumming and equally distinct vocal delivery style.
Drummer Buddy Radford talked about the song’s musical arrangement in a prepared statement.
“We are here to put the piss and vinegar back into rock-n-roll, Radford said. “‘Welcome to the Show’ is essentially a catchy chorus wrapped with simple verses and soaked with copious amounts of guitar wankery. It oozes attitude and harkens back to the day when people weren’t so soft and rock music was hard. It’s only Rock-N-Roll but we like it.”
No information was provided about the lyrical theme presented in the song. However, a simple listen revels the theme is simply about enjoying and celebrating the excesses of rock and roll.
Rock band The Scarlet Goodbye is working on its debut album, Say Hello to The Scarlet Goodbye, and in anticipation, released the album’s lead single and video this month.
The band premiered the album’s lead single, ‘Rosary‘ March 12 along with its companion lyric video. The video features the song’s lyrics appearing over various imagery, such as a person holding rosary beads, thunderstorms, a car driving through a city as the song plays over the visualization.
Courtesy: Epochal Artists Records/INgrooves
The musical arrangement featured in the song is a gentle, flowing, almost emo style composition. Founding member Dan Murphy (also of Soul Asylum fame) said of the arrangement that its sound and approach is comparable to The Cure’s ‘Lost in the Supermarket.’ It also bears similarity to songs from so many modern emo acts.
Murphy said the song’s lyrical theme is that of unrequited love. He said it was about a woman that he was seeing at the time that he wrote the song’s lyrics, adding he felt more strongly for her than she did for him.
More information on The Scarlet Goodbye’s new single, video, and album is available along with all of the group’s latest news at:
Country rock outfit The Brotherhood premiered its debut single and video to kick off the weekend.
The band, which include Saving Abel’s Scott Wilson on guitar, bass, and vocals, debuted its new single, ‘Till The Wheels Fall Off’ Friday, along with the song’s video. The country rock composition also features guest appearances from Neal Middleton (Royal Bliss), Marshal Dutton (Hinder), Brian Bonds (Florida Georgia Line), Kent Slucher (Luke Bryan) and Steve Hinson. Even with so many modern rock and country names taking part in the song, the overall arrangement throws back to the country rock songs that were so popular during the late 1980s and early-mid 90s.
The lyrical theme that accompanies the song’s musical arrangement is a straight forward presentation about life on the road. Even being such a familiar topic presented in a familiar fashion, it is still accessible, though that is largely due, again, to the song’s infectious musical arrangement.
The video for ‘Till The Wheels Fall Off’ is simple in its own presentation. It features the song’s lyrics over pictures of the band and its friends performing. The song’s arrangement plays over the visualization.
More information on The Brotherhood’s new single and video is available along with all of the band’s latest news at:
Independent rock band Voltagehawk released its debut album, Electric Thunder, this month.
The band released the album Jan. 21 through The Label Group/INgrooves. In celebration of the record’s release, the band premiered the video for the record’s latest single, ‘The Cosmic Hangman.’ The video features the band in what looks like a unique recording studio setting, complete with lights and mirrors that make it look like a club.
The song’s musical arrangement is a driving, up-tempo composition. Its combination of stoner and neo-classic rock influences makes it unique in its own right. Comparisons can be made just as much to works from the likes of Clutch and Queens of the Stone Age as to South of Eden throughout the song. The balance in that duality ensures audiences’ engagement and entertainment.
Front man Dan Fenton talked about the commentary in the song’s lyrical theme in a prepared statement.
“On 10/17/17 I was dead. I had drank myself into oblivion,” he said. “Years of depression, abuse, and confusion as a child had finally caught up with me. As I lay unconscious, I was at perfect peace; no pain, no ringing in my ears, just floating for 9 minutes as the paramedics brought me back. I heard a voice inside my mind ask if I wanted to stay in the cosmic womb or if I would stop drinking. Those were my only options. I chose to give up the bottle, accept help for the first time in my life, and enter a treatment program. It changed everything.
“My moment of peace in the cosmic womb let me know that there was something after this life, but not what they had taught me as a child. The reception of my new found life was mixed. As I went on a journey of amends, I was embraced by some and rejected by others. I was told that without religion I couldn’t possibly have changed. They were wrong, I had changed.”
Added Fenton, “The rule of the papacy has long cast judgment on those seeking change outside the constructs of religion or faith. This song is an anthem for the undamned, unfallen, and unredeemed. Rebirth is not a battle between heaven and hell, but a battle between mind and body.”
‘The Cosmic Hangman’ is just one of the singles produced from Voltagehawk’s new album. The record has also produced the single, ‘Recrimination.‘
More information on Voltagehawk’s new single, video, and album is available along with all of the band’s latest news at:
It’s hard to believe but 2021 is officially only four weeks from its big finale. One can only hope that moving forward from here into 2022, that sooner rather than later, we’ll finally be rid of this COVID-19 crap and life can finally go back to what it was. Time will tell. In the meantime, this critic has checked over his calendar for the year’s waning weeks, and surprisingly, there are no more new EPs to go through for the year. That means it is finally time to start in on this year’s “best of” year-ender lists. Of course, as in every year past, the very first of those lists comes in the form of the smallest of the music releases noted.
This year’s list of new EPs features new releases from at least one relatively well-known figure and a number of others who are either up-and-coming or semi-established. They run the gamut from family music to pop to rock and metal to even some southern rock/country. These lists are never easy to finalize because even among the EPs there is so much to appreciate musically and lyrically. That was taken into full consideration with this list, too. Those who have followed this critic’s ramblings for years on end, know how the lists work. For everyone else, they work as such: Instead of just 10 new offerings, this list is composed of 15 titles. The top 10 are the best of the best while the following five are honorable mention titles. This is not a stab at those releases or the acts that released them, either. Far from it. The whole purpose is to give those extras their due credit, too.
So without any further ado, here for your consideration is Phil’s Picks Top 10 New EPs of 2021.
PHIL’S PICKS 2021 TOP 10 NEW EPS
SaulPaul – OK To Be Different
Gabriel & The Apocalypse – Alpha Transcendence
Decent Criminal – Decent Criminal
The Mercy Kills – New Rule
Dirkschneider & The Old Gang – Arising
Repentance – Volume 1 – Reborn
All Hail The Yeti – Within The Hollow Earth
Kulick – Sitting in a Quiet Coffeehouse
Blue Eyed Christ – World on Fire Remixes
Zero Theorum – The Killing II
Sydney Sherwood – Headspace
Christopher Shayne – Ten High
20 Watt Tombstone – Year of the Jackalope
Post Death Soundtrack – Pathless Land
Black TarPoon – The Thad
That’s it for this year’s top new EPs. Thanks goes out to all of the firms that sent out this great music and so much more. No offense is meant to any act left out. For instance Of Mice & Men released a trio of new EPs this year, but they ended up as the new album, Echo, so that album is up for consideration among this critic’s top new hard rock/metal albums of the year. Even more year-enders are on their way as the last days of the year start to wind down, so stay tuned!
Independent rock band Voltagehawk offered audiences a new preview of its new album last month.
The band premiered its new single, ‘Recrimination‘ and its companion video Oct. 27 through Ghost Cult magazine. The song is featured in the band’s forthcoming album, Electric Thunder, which is scheduled for release Jan. 21 through The Label Group/INgrooves.
The musical arrangement featured in ‘Recrimination’ is a heavy, driving composition. The fuzz effect that is incorporated into the song gives it something of a stoner rock edge alongside its modern rock sound. The juxtaposition and combination of those two styles and sounds here makes the arrangement engaging and entertaining in its own right.
The song’s lyrical theme is a social statement of sorts, according to a prepared statement from the band. The statement also addresses the song’s video, which was directed by Jarrad James.
“Cause and effect, effect and cause,” the statement reads. “Crime itself is often a byproduct of the environment created for the repeat offender by the systems of law. In this downbeat driven, fuzzed out dystopian Robin Hood tale, we follow a criminal locked in battle against recidivism. In a landscape of survival, it asks you what you would be willing to do. It asks you to take a walk in another man’s shoes, for when you point one finger, three point back at you.”
More information on Voltagehawk’s new single, video, and album is available along with all of the band’s latest news at:
Independent hard rock band Hell & Hollar premiered its latest single and video last week.
The band premiered its new single, ‘Siberian Hunter‘ and its companion video Friday. The song features a heavy stoner rock-tinged stylistic approach and sound that is balanced well with a touch of 90s grunge influence for its foundation.
No information was provided about the lyrical theme featured alongside the song’s musical arrangement.
The video for ‘Siberian Hunter’ is presented in an almost video graphic novel hybrid type approach. It follows its titular character making his way through a forest and eventually meeting a wolf along the way. The result of the meeting will be left for audiences to discover for themselves.
More information on Hell & Hollar’s new single and video is available along with all of the band’s latest news at:
Courtesy: The Label Group Entertainment Group/INgrooves
Independent rock band premiered its new single, ‘Neon‘ and its companion video this month.
The band premiered the pairing June 9. The song, which comes approximately five months after the band’s then latest single, ‘Straight Razor,’ is featured in the band’s concept album, Electric Thunder. The album center’s on a young woman’s journey through space and time. During the course of her journey, the woman finds out she plays a pivotal role in the future of mankind.
The musical arrangement featured in ‘Neon’ is an interesting composition that blends the heavily fuzzed sounds of the stoner rock realm with an equally evident industrial metal sound to create a unique whole that is certain to keep listeners engaged and entertained. The lyrical concept that accompanies that musical content meanwhile gets somewhat existential.
It comes across as a sort of allegory about the contradictory nature of the human condition. This happens through the examination of the normalization of sex in society, and how that contradicts with how we as humans are far less accepting of ourselves. That is this critic’s own interpretation and should not be taken as gospel.
The band explained the song’s lyrical concept in a prepared statement.
“‘Neon’ is a vision of a dystopian skid row, a glimpse into the future through blurred white lines on neon-lit streets,” the statement reads. “The truth is we all have sex for money, sex for love, and sex to pass the time. In some way or another, we’re just like the woman in the song screaming in a final moment of frustration “Pay me my money and go!”, all the while fed up with whatever part of ourselves we’ve sold to get by in this life.”
The video that is used alongside the new single is meant to help translate the seeming message. Information provided about the video states: “Meet Kenzeon, a transdimensional sex worker on the Cosmic Highway just outside ‘The Land of No One.’ A vision of a dystopian skid row, she offers a glimpse into the future through blurred white lines on neon-lit streets, ripping through the fabric of space-time to be paid what she is owed. The weary version of this astral being reminds us that we have all had sex for money, sex for love, and sex to pass the time, fed up with whatever part of ourselves we’ve had to sell in order to survive the worlds we were born into.”
More information on Voltagehawk’s new single, video, and album is available along with all of the band’s latest news at:
Independent singer-songwriter Mitchel Evan’s new self-titled album is a welcome addition to this year’s field of new albums in the realm of country music, folk and Americana. Released March 24, the 12-song record will appeal widely to fans of the noted genres. That is due in part to the recording’s featured musical arrangements, which will be discussed shortly. The lyrical themes that accompany the record’s musical arrangements work with that content to add more appeal to the album. It will be discussed a little later. The sequencing of the record’s songs puts the finishing touch to its presentation and will also be discussed later. Each item noted here is important in its own way to the whole of Evan’s new album. All things considered, the album proves to be a presentation that is worth hearing occasionally.
Mitchel Evan’s new self-titled album is a work that fans of Americana, neo-folk and country will find an interesting addition to this year’s field of new albums within said genres. That is proven in part through the album’s featured musical arrangements. The arrangements in question span all three genres, which are very closely related to begin with but are still diverse in their own right. Speaking specifically, the arrangements featured in this 46-minute presentation will appeal to fans of Evan’s more well-known counterparts, such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young. Additionally, one can also make some comparisons to works from Goo Goo Dolls. Yes, that seems like quite the jarring contrast for the other noted but it is there. Right from the album’s outset, ‘As Far As You Know,’ the album gives listeners something of a bluesy, southern rock vibe that itself is comparable to works from Goo Goo Dolls. ‘Bandaid,’ which comes early in the album, is another of those works that so easily lends itself to comparisons to works from Goo Goo Dolls. That is evidenced through the song’s collective string arrangement, guitar line, and vocals. Much the same can be said of the arrangement featured in ‘Cancel out the Noise.’
Things change dramatically in terms of the arrangements as the album progresses to ‘Gotta Be A Way,’ the album’s midpoint. The twang of the slide guitar, Evan’s own vocal delivery and the backing female vocals give this song a distinct vintage country music vibe. The warmth in the arrangement and its sound lend themselves to visions of the old country honky tonk club of days gone by. It is so completely unlike the other songs already examined here, and in the process manages to show Evan’s ability and talent even in this genre.
‘Kansas City’ continues to exhibit the noted country music influence in its arrangement. What is interesting here is that Evan’s vocal delivery style and sound here lend themselves to comparisons to those of Bob Dylan. That in itself makes for even more interest, considering that Dylan has done some works during his career that have shown some country music leanings. To that end, it is one more way in which the record’s musical arrangements show their importance. That diversity and depth is clearly there.
The Bruce Springsteen comparison comes even later in the album’s run in the form of ‘Leeches’ and ‘Let Me Down Easy.’ It is not an immediately obvious comparison. A close listen however, makes the comparison clearer. Between these arrangements, the others notes throughout the record and the remaining works, the whole of the album’s featured arrangements offer much to appreciate in their diversity and accessibility. Keeping that in mind, the arrangements make for reason in themselves for audiences to hear Mitchel Evan’s new self-titled album. They are just part of what makes the album worth consideration, too. The record’s lyrical content makes for even more reason for audiences to hear the album.
The lyrical content featured in Mitchel Evan’s new album is important to note because for the most part, it follows one overarching theme, that of relationships. Starting again right from the album’s opener, that theme is inferred. Evan sings in the song’s chorus, “I was good to you/As far as you know.” It is a short, simple line, but speaks volumes. This is someone who is addressing another, pointing out that he tried to make a relationship work. In the chorus’ refrain, he changes things, stating, “You were good to me,” adding “I was the good guy/But I lost the fight.” He even asks in the song’s lead verse, “What have we done this time…Did I lose your attention or just my mind?” This is but a sampling of the song’s lyrical content, but is enough to infer that as noted, it is a song takes on the familiar topic of a broken relationship. The vulnerability that is displayed through his use of words is impacting to say the least. When it is considered with the vulnerability expressed through the song’s musical arrangement, it proves to be even deeper and accessible. It is just one example of how that largely overarching theme makes for its own appeal. ‘Cancel Out the Noise’ is another example of the effect of the album’s lyrical content.
Evan debuted ‘Cancel Out the Noise’ in February. He openly said during an interview about the song that it is also focused on the noted lyrical theme.
“It came to me when I was falling for someone new,” he said. “I was living in Colorado at the time, but I actually started writing the song in Richmond while I was home for a week visiting my family. This song actually first appeared on my 2018 EP, The Little Horse Tapes. I had only been single for a short while after coming out of a long-term relationship and I was hesitant to enter another. The song is about being pulled into love with your heels dug into the dirt.” There is no need to go through lyrics here to support one’s argument. Evan has made it clear here that once again, he has offered audiences a song whose lyrical content focuses on the noted topic of relationships. It is yet another example of how that recurring, accessible theme plays into the album’s presentation. ‘Lonesome Love,’ which comes late in the album, needs little to no examination. The very title itself of that song pretty much explains its theme.
Evan asks in this song, ‘Oh my lonesome love/Where do you hide/Show me where you hide” in the song’s chorus.” This after already stating in the song’s lead verse, “When I finally show up/You’ll already be on your way home.” There is even a mention of facing the music later in the song. Considering all of this and the rest of the record’s content, the whole makes the song in whole clearly another lyrical presentation that centers on a relationship. When it, the other songs noted here, and the rest of the album’s songs are considered together, the whole makes clear that there is one primary lyrical theme featured in this record that is accessible to any listener. That familiarity and accessibility collectively make the album that much more appealing. It still is not the last of the album’s most important elements. The record’s sequencing rounds out its most important elements.
The sequencing of Mitchel Evan’s new album is so important to address because of the subtleties in the shifts in its energies. For the most part, the album’s energies are relatively reserved throughout. However there are some variances within the songs and from one to the next. Those shifts are so subtle that one cannot help but remain engaged and entertained. Case in point is ‘Lonesome Love.’ It has some very clear reserved energy, but at the same time, just as much energy balanced against that element. The bigger picture here and throughout the album is that its sequencing ensures audiences’ engagement and entertainment just as much as the arrangements and their lyrical accompaniments. That is because of the amount of time and thought put into the subtle changes in the songs’ energies. All things considered, the record proves to be a record that deserves to be heard at least once.
Mitchel Evan’s new self-titled album, released last month, is a work that will appeal widely to listeners. That is proven in part through the record’s featured musical arrangements. By and large, the record’s musical arrangements will appeal to fans of the realms of roots rock, Americana and country. Though there is a little rock influence to keep things interesting. The album’s overarching lyrical theme centering on relationships and romance will appeal to fans of those all too familiar topics. The record’s sequencing balances its more reserved energies and its higher tempo moments, adding even more appeal to the whole. Each item noted is important in its own way to the whole of the record. All things considered, the album proves itself to be a presentation that the noted audiences will agree is worth hearing at least once. Mitchel Evan is available now.
More information on Mitchel Evans’ new album is available along with all of his latest news at:
philspicks 