Gentlemans Pistols At Her Majesty’s Pleasure
Rise Above
The Gentlemans Pistols are stone cold rollers steeped thigh-high in the foggy bluster of ’72′s hullabaloo who, now four years removed from their self-titled full-length debut, have forged a grin-and-lick-it campaign aimed at monopolizing the gold-dusted, classic rock racket. This enterprise, known simply as At Her Majesty’s Request, is uproariously glorious, and you don’t so much as listen to it as you do walk into its dark and musty den and stare at all the trophy riffs mounted on the wall like 10 point bucks. The UK band’s powerful, hook-filled bombast has picked up a certain amount of intensity in the last few years, which is no doubt due to the addition of guitarist Bill Steer (of Carcass, Napalm Death, and Firebird fame), who joined the group in 2009 and has brought a ferocious emphasis to the Gentlemans’ twin guitar attack (bolstered on the other side by vocalist/guitarist James Atkinson), the likes of which I haven’t heard since I last listened to Pride Tiger or Tricky Woo. What I’m getting at here is that they slay it, plain and simple, and despite the fact that they leave behind a whole pile of incriminating evidence tying them to a conspiracy involving Cactus, Deep Purple, Captain Beyond, Thin Lizzy, and BANG (and, most certainly, booze, drugs, women, and Satan), they’re too good to get caught, and live to rock and flaunt the gaoler all night long.
Black Pyramid Stormbringer EP
Hydro-Phonic Records
Black Pyramid’s 2009 self-titled full-length debut was nothing short of devastating, and I mean that in the best way possible, of course. It’s a festering slab of warmongering fuzz often compared to a maligned mix of Black Sabbath, Sleep, and High on Fire, and it’s as close as you’ll get to a modern day doom classic, if such a thing exists. Well, the Massachusetts trio is back (on their own after a few splits) with two new songs, side A’s “Stormbringer” (not a Deep Purple cover) and side B’s “Cloud of Unknowing,” and both remain true to Black Pyramid’s rotting character but offer some subtle twists that hint at an evolving metal sound; “Stormbringer,” for instance, rides into battle at a Sword-like tempo and contains a mid-song breakdown reminiscent of Metallica’s “Orion” or “The Call of Ktulu” while “Cloud of Unknowing” opens in a more haunting, melodic death fashion akin to Swallow the Sun before it converts to crushing. If you’re not into Black Pyramid yet, now is the time. Guitarist/vocalist Andy Beresky is quickly emerging as one of my favourite in the genre, and assuming they haven’t sold out, this 7″ has an amazing die-cut cover and is available in both a standard and deluxe edition.*
*I was lucky enough to snag one of the 100 deluxe editions before they sold out. It came with glow-in-the-dark vinyl and a CD containing six songs (the two from this EP, three from Black Pyramid’s 2007 demo, and the vinyl-only track, “Macedonia,” from the self-titled full-length). To the best of my knowledge, though, the standard edition is still available.
Check out a video of Black Pyramid performing “Stormbringer” live!
#2 The Devil’s Blood – The Time of No Time Evermore
As European as the Renaissance, as inviting as a red light, as despair-ridden as a dungeon full of skeletons, and as classic as Thin Lizzy, no new band caught my attention more this year than The Devil’s Blood, who rock the Transylvania castle party in a HUGE way. They released a demo in ’07, and a 7″ and 5-song EP last year, so call this one their first full-length, and it’s nothing but a gorgeous offering of ’70s metal (you know, the kind of metal that’s more rock n’ roll than metal, the kind that bands like Deep Purple played) and sacrilegious pop, an occult rock n’ soul record of wicked lore, perhaps summoned from the days of yore. Modernly speaking though, it’s like Urge Overkill jamming with Shiny Mama — this band is clearly the lovechild of Nash Kato and Yana Chupenko sent to hypnotize us all and steal our virtue. Yes! And their song “I’ll Be Your Ghost”? Yeah dude, far and away my favourite song of the year.
Gentlemans Pistols
Black Pyramid
#2 The Devil’s Blood – The Time of No Time Evermore