Happy New Year From Raysrealm! Welcome, 2010!

Just a quick Happy New Year message from Raysrealm to all the readers out there who have supported me all year, in past years and even those who just stumbled upon the site today! 2009 produced some great music and here's hoping there's plenty more to come in 2010. Remember, get those Top 10 lists in to my email address... raysrealm@aol.com ... by Jan 31, 2010. See the details a couple posts back and, of course, I the paranoid delusionist will remind you again. I'm getting ready to sit down and start working on mine and I want to make sure everybody else has to pull their hair out the way I do. Not that I have very much left to pull out anyway, but hey, you know how that goes!!! Have fun, stay safe and rawk like a mutha!!!

Forecast: Reign!

REIGN STORM – “Tomorrow’s Past” CD ’09 (Arkyen Steel, US) – Been an interesting 6 months or so on the Dorsey / Lembach Reunion front. See, here’s the thing. Back this past summer, in the realms of Facebook, I got friended up by an old record store buddy Jarrett Lembach. Within literally a couple of weeks of that, thanks to my wife Jennifer’s urging, I checked out awesome local metal cover band Deadlock. One of the discoveries I made about them, aside from the fact that they completely stomp ass and that they (in their alternate form, Shift) released a massive album in 2006, was that their drummer is Chris Lembach, brother of Jarrett. Chris, besides being another music store chum from the mists of time, also had manned the tubs for area prog institutions Mystic Force back in the day. So, the last several months have seen me catch up with Chris over a lot of old and new stories at Deadlock shows plus receive in the mail this nifty REIGN STORM CD from brother Jarrett. It’s a lengthy, 16 song collection spanning the life of his band over the years 1991 – 1998. Got all that?

Anyway, “Tomorrow’s Past” by REIGN STORM is a real breath of fresh air. For me, it brings back a feeling of metal that you just don’t hear that much anymore. When I say that, I’m talking about days when metallers had long hair, wore Iron Maiden shirts and didn’t feel the need to write every song about some pathetic loser committing suicide because his goth-girl had left him for another vampire. I’m also talking about the days when the words “progressive metal” didn’t make you feel the bile rising in your throat and have you running for the safety of your Blue Cheer albums. No, when I put on this disc and the opening title cut fires out of the Realm Blaster, I’m picturing guys in muscle shirts with “Mercyful Fate” on the front, Jackson V’s and hair swirling…and that’s a good thing. Yes, because much like our beloved Fate (and even Arch-era Fates Warning), these guys packed a helluva punch into their songs. Why, just in that title cut and “Chapter XXX,” guitarist Robb Peterson crams more riffs and harmony leads than Carter’s got liver pills. The best thing about this is that, like the classic MF duo of Shermann & Denner, he does it in songs that range mostly from 3-5 minutes…thus keeping the listener’s interest, not making everything a half-hour snore-a-thon. In fact, it’s notable that only 2 tracks out of the 16 here last beyond the 7 minute mark. Jarrett Lembach’s vocals are a real eye-opener for me throughout this disc. The guy has a range that goes from a pensive mid-range to stratospheric, all with an ease that references the best of the genre, like Mr. Diamond, Arch and John Stewart (Slauter Xstroyes). Listen to his work, for example, in “Road To Insanity.” That’s impressive! It’s also far more than notable that 9 of the 16 numbers here feature the drumming of brother Chris Lembach. As something like “Ruler Of Today” proves, he’s not only one of the premier sticksmen in the local area but of any I’ve seen. (Watch him nail the Tool covers in Deadlock, as well). The blinding bass work on most of the cuts is handled by John Barr.

Another neat thing about this CD is that it chronicles the band’s progress, from their 1989 demo through some live cuts (’91) and on to demos from ’97 and ’98 (some of which feature the contributions of other musicians as well, like Drew Mazurek, Mike Davis, Dwayne Adams, Charles Parker and Frank Starchak) . Unlike some such collections, where the listener finds him or herself blanching at hideous and wildly variable sound quality, the production values here are not just listenable but very high throughout. It all makes this something I have kept near the player since it’s arrival, the perfect antidote to those times I find myself in need of top-notch, first class pure metal. (Um...isn't that always, Ray?) The packaging is sterling, the sleeve notes describing the band’s history are exhaustive and the artwork is first-rate. The only drawback to the whole affair is that 1998 seemed to signal the end for the REIGN STORM story and I find myself sad that I never got to see these guys trod the boards. Still, that being said, this disc is a super chronicle of a band that any real metaller could hold to their heart. And, it’s a limited edition of 1000, so act now! Metal Storm

http://www.arkeynsteel.com/
info@arkeynsteel.com

Reminder! Raysrealm 2009 Reader's Poll Is Now Open!

Well folks, it's that time again! We're reaching the end of yet another year of music and with that in mind, it's time for us all to go on record & make fools of ourselves salivating over a handful of the better platters of '09. So, send in your Top Ten albums (CD's, albums, records, whatever you want to call 'em). The only requirement is that they were released in 2009 (I know there is sometimes a sticking point over the date on the back of disc... e.g., sometimes something is dated 2008 and actually isn't available until 2009. What we're looking for is things that became available during 2009...you know what I mean.) Anyhoo, send in your Top 10 list to my email: raysrealm@aol.com The cut-off date is Jan 31, 2010 for the simple reason that we give you till the end of the year and then a little time to get your thoughts in order. Then, right after Jan 31, I'll publish the results of the poll, plus my own Top 10 for those of you who give a dern. BE SURE TO INCLUED YOUR POSTAL MAILING ADDRESS IN YOUR EMAIL! Anyone who sends in a Top 10 by Jan 31, 2010 will receive a kewl surprise from me in the mail shortly thereafter! So, list away! Again, send the Top 10 and your mailing address to: raysrealm@aol.com

Grand Halls 37

SORCERY – “Sinister Soldiers” 2LP ’78 (Century, US) – The water. It’s got to be something in the water up there, that’s all I can figure. Oh, pardon me for my musings. I was just sitting here, trying to figure out why 3 of my favourite obscure hard rock bands of all-time happen to be from one single area of the United States called Chicago. I’m talking about Slauter Xstroyes, Winterhawk and SORCERY. Bear in mind, now, these were not all the product of some wondrous “scene” like happened in San Francisco in the ‘80’s wherein Metallica & Exodus set the tone and a bunch of others (some good, some not so much) jumped on the chugga-chugga train. No, these were 3 totally dissimilar bands who issued local vinyl during the period from 1978 thru 1985 without the benefit of mass media coverage. Their stuff was unknown except to a few like the late Phil Baker and Dennis Bergeron (Monster Records) who turned me onto all 3. SORCERY is the most mysterious of the bunch and this is what I know, so listen up.

In 1967, a guy in Illinois named Kirk Bryk (real name Brykowski) began playing guitar. In the next few years he got heavily into the emerging UK gods, Black Sabbath, and Tony Iommi influenced him to develop an extremely heavy style. This might not seem all that unusual, as around that time a lot of people who played guitar were probably bent on aping T.I. The only thing is, a lot of people didn’t actually become super players and go on to form SORCERY in 1974. Kirk Bryk did, however, and that’s the beginning of what would become a great band.

In the first couple years after SORCERY’s inception, the group was forced to do a lot of covers in order to get gigs. Some of the bands who’s material they did included Starz, Angel and of course, Sabbath, culling numbers from”Vol. 4,” “Sabbath, Blood Sabbath” and “Sabotage” for their live sets. Still, while all of this was going on, Mr. Kirk Bryk was a busy man. He was writing originals that were gradually being worked into the band’s repertoire, many of which not only held their own with the covers but stood right alongside them in terms of heaviness and writing panache. The band got a break when the local representative of 20th Century Records saw them, dug what they were about and decided to let them record an album for his own tiny label, aptly called Century. At that point, SORCERY consisted of: Kirk Bryk – lead guitar, vocals, bass, synthesizer and percussion; Tim Barrett – lead vocals; Paul Koster – guitar, vocals; Dave Maycroft – bass; Kieran Hoening – drums. The record they produced would be one of the most oddly original and yet overpoweringly great metal albums ever, not to mention one of the rarest.

“Sinister Soldiers” was issued in 1978, while most metallers at the time were checking out “Stained Class” and “Hemispheres” and praying that the Travolta era might soon end. The first thing you notice about SORCERY’s debut, of course, is the cover. Truthfully, the artwork by Janetta Lewis is fantastic and may represent one of the heaviest-looking album jackets ever. It would be pitiful to try to describe it on paper, so just look at the picture above. You’d have bought that sumbitch if you saw it sitting in the store, wouldn’t you?! ‘Nuff said. Secondly, you see that the thing is a 2 record set! Now, granted, it ends up being a fairly short one but still, before the days of 65 minute, spreading-the-butter-way-too-thin CD’s, double albums had the air of “epic-on-a-grand-scale” all over them. But of course, the proof is in the pudding and there’s to be music to back up the trappings. Let’s explore….

Side One of “Sinister Soldiers” opens with “Aracnid (The Dark King).” Immediately after the initial drum beats, the heaviness sets in, blasting riffs of tuned-down Sabbathy gruffness, sort of like “Supernaut” in a garage. In truth, the whole of this album features a very sparse, rugged, back-room raw production that I just love. It really adds to the heaviness and the kind of blast-furnace power erupts again in the second cut, “Fly The Sky.” I dig this song a whole lot, the power chords oozing like molten lead and Kirk Bryk cutting loose some hot Iommi-ish lead. The first real indication of ultimate godliness comes with Side One’s final cut, “Sugar Sweet Lady (Debbie’s Song).” It’s a melodic instrumental, sort of like a cross between Sabbath’s “Fluff” and Priest’s “Cavier And Meths” outro but the lead guitar tone is pure fuzz death! The combination is awesome and leaves you breathless for what will follow.

Side Two of “Sinister Soldiers” is simply one long, beautiful masterpiece. Clocking in at just under 13 minutes, “The Last Goodbye” is one of those cuts that automatically finds it’s way onto a comp of your all-time classics. It begins very mellow and painstakingly deliberate, yet soon forms a melody that reminds me of Priest’s early epics. Tim Barrett’s vocals are oddly (yet greatly!) reminiscent of Bow Wow’s Kyoji Yamamoto and when Bryk cuts on his fuzz machine midway through, it’s instant musical ecstasy. The guy’s tone here is like a chainsaw but it still retains haunting melody. Incredible, yes, but we’re only halfway through.

With Side Three, SORCERY step it up and really kick out the jams on “Slippin’ Away (for K.E.R.).” It’s a raucous garage-metal stomper, with Bryk taking over temporarily on vocals yet, in another twist of great songwriting, the number slows at the end into a wonderfully melodic coda replete with more nasty fuzz soloing. Seriously, the word “brutal” was invented to describe this guitar sound. Completing Side Three is the 9 ½ minute epic “Snowshit,” one of my favourite song titles and another masterpiece. The track opens with a crushing, haggard and up-tempo rhythm on top of which Bryk lays a smoldering run of lead guitar reminding me of Uli Roth in “Polar Nights.” Just when you think you’ve got SORCERY figured out, however, the last strains of distortion lift like a veil of early morning mist and the curtain rises on the song-proper. Yes, that was only an intro! This one is, again, extremely subtle, the semi-acoustic rhythm reminding me very much of Priest’s “Run Of The Mill.” Barrett is chilling here, his vocals telling that “death is surely winter’s snow,” but my favourite part comes when Bryk launches into the middle guitar solo (the 2nd of 3). Just before he picks the first note of the caustic fuzz lead, you clearly hear him kick on the distortion and feel the raw power wash over the last mellow chord he strummed. It might not seem like any big deal on paper, but the effect is so cool and vintage-early-‘70’s that it makes me ga-ga, as does the grinding solo that follows. An interesting sidelight about this song is the origin of it’s title. Seems that when SORCERY first started performing it live, it still had no name but was accompanied by snow-like confetti that wafted down from the ceiling to the stage. One night, a fan commented to the band that he “liked that song where all the snow shit comes down.” You gotta love it!

“Sinister Soldiers” finally comes down the home stretch on Side Four and, for some reason, the recording quality here dips almost too far into a murky drone. Still, while this kind of production might kill some material, it actually adds to the vibe of the three battering rams called “Airborne,” “Sorcerer” and “Schitzoid.” These go back to the short, direct attack of the album’s opening cuts and hit me like classic Sabbath and Motorhead brawling in a dank basement. I think “Schitzoid,” with it’s great B-movie references to being “instantly destroyed, forever trapped on the Planet Schitzoid” is my fave of the trio.

With “Sinister Soldiers,” SORCERY had produced a unique double album that, had it been released on a major label, would’ve had them revered in the same breath as Sabbath, Priest, Budgie, etc. In fact, through some sort of grapevine, the band acquired a following of sorts in L.A. and, sometime in 1978 journeyed to the Left Coast to do a club tour. Word has it that they played some shows with Survivor (the “Eye Of The Tiger” variety, who I’m sure they decimated) and actually headlined over Van Halen at one venue. It’s also rumored that on this excursion, they sold a very nicely made color SORCERY tour program. Find one of them for me and I’m liable to trade my home and property for it! Sadly, however, with only a limited supply of the album to sell (I’ve been told 1000 were made but try to find one now…it’s one of the rarest metal LP’s ever), SORCERY would remain infinitely obscure.

This was not the end of the story, however. After some soul-searching and a line-up change or so, Kirk Bryk and his band recorded and released a second LP in 1980, the single album “Tell Death Do We Part.” It is a good album musically but to be honest, not even close to the epic piece of art that is “Sinister Soldiers.” The songs are all fairly short (i.e. nothing like “The Last Goodbye” or “Snowshit”) and the vocals are not a patch on those done by Barrett, at points sounding like the most whiney ever conceived by Dave Mustaine. Of course, the caked-in-molten-lava guitar tone of Bryk is still rampant and cuts like “Ogre,” “Fly Away” and “Right To Survive” are quite good songs. So, “Till Death Do We Part” is surely worth hearing, although it’s awfully expensive if you can. In keeping with “Sinister Soldiers,” the 2nd SORCERY release did nothing to garner the band a household name in the metal world. Still, Kirk soldiered (ouch!) on and sometime in the early ‘80’s he recorded an album’s worth of solo material that was never laid to wax. I haven’t heard any of this stuff but I’m told it was eons more commercial than “Till Death….” Apparently a single was selected from this collection and a video recorded for it, which was actually shown several times on Ted Turner’s cable TV network rival to early MTV. Anybody remember seeing it?

From what I understand, Kirk Bryk kept playing music well into the ‘00’s and may still be to this day, continuing to extrapolate from the influences of bands like Sabbath, Motorhead and, interestingly enough, Witchfynde. If anyone reading this has any more information regarding the man’s later musical activities, please do me a favour and pass it along. In the meantime, if you’ve never been fortunate enough to hear “Sinister Soldiers,” do yourself a favour and try to do just that. While landing an original LP is completely out-of-sight, an internet foray may land you one of the various CD re-issues that have cropped up over the years. Hits You Like A Ton Of Bryks

NOTE: This Chicago SORCERY is not to be confused with another obscure Sorcery who also released a fantastic album called "Stunt Rock" within the same year as "Sinister Soldiers." But that's for another chapter of the Grand Halls....

Grand Halls 36

SEVENDUST – “Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow” CD ’08 (7Bros, US) – Right about now what I suspect some readers are doing is looking at this, an album by SEVENDUST from 2008 reviewed under the Grand Halls section and thinking it’s a misprint or that I’ve lost my mind. Fear not, my friends, it makes complete sense and here’s why. Over the years, my musical journeys have taken me a lot of places, a lot of them far afield, into places like scraggly demos recorded by bands from North Dakota in the back of a farmhouse and released in microscopic runs of a couple hundred max. Therefore, in an odd sense, and yet one that’s just as true, something like this is what’s obscure, underground or unknown for me. Granted, there are a lot of reasons for people of discriminating tastes to avoid things more mainstream or the radio. All you have to do is take a quick scan of the dial and you’ll see why. By the same token, there are times when, tooling around in the mini-van (that of the broken CD player!) a mood will sweep over me that renders me sick and tired of the AM sports talk shows. And, when I do this and throw on something like 98 Rock in hopes of hearing the scant airing of “Run To The Hills” or “Metal Gods,” an interesting thing will happen: I’ll hear something else I’ll like…a lot. Now, I know, I know. What I’m “supposed to do” when this happens, by all the “True Metal” and “underground” standards is take a sheepish look around, convince myself that said song was really no good and forge an agreement with myself and I that this will never be spoken of again. But personally, I’ve never been one to fall for that kind of dead-end musical elitism and I’ve simply gotta find out whatever it was and check it out. This time, it was “Prodigal Son” by SEVENDUST.

Imagine my feelings of being out-of-the-loop when I went to Amazon and found out this band has not one, but a whole bunch of CD’s. Be that as it may, it took quick work to find out that the song I’d heard had come from their latest, the snappily entitled “Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow.” I slipped into Best Buy under cover of the night and purchased the disc, pulling my collar up around my face and looking over my shoulder as I cringed at the sticker proclaiming “features Chris Daughtry on one song.” (No, that scenario was just to give an uneasy laugh to all the holier-than-thou’s…well, maybe I did hesitate when I saw “Chris Daughtry” but….) So, down to business, I threw this in and was left to wonder what I’d get when the…wait for it…eerie intro started. Thing is, the first song “Inside” finally came roaring out of the speakers with vocalist Lajon Witherspoon announcing “Pleased to meet you, motherfucker!” and I thought I was listening to a lost Pantera track! Varying between down-tuned ass-mauling aggro verses and the kind of chorus Alice In Chains would give pause for, these guys had me impressed. “Enough” continued the proceedings and I’m understanding why people dig this shit. Catchy-as-hell, in-your-face riffs and production, yeah this is good stuff! I’m digging this and then, here comes the song with Chris Daughtry and I’m ready to hate it, ready to ask why the hell they decided to ruin what had the potential to be an excellent album by inviting some American I-Dull onboard and there’s only one problem…it’s a good song and the vocals completely fit. Sheezus, do I stand corrected, it’s not my fave song on the disc but it works. But I don’t really have time to think about all that because up next you’ve got the well-paced elephant gun of “Prodigal Son” wherein John Connolly lays down some seething wah-wah. Gotta say though, “Contradiction” is the star of the show. Holy shit, this song is heavy! The guitar solo overtop the “One”-like machine gun rhythm is a thing of beauty and the Amselmo-like vocals really add the cherry on top. This is the kind of album that’s a purely cathartic listen. Had a hard day? Open all the windows on the Camaro (you lucky people with not only a Camaro, but a car CD player that works!), throw this in on “11” and blast down the road. Aggressive, emotional and it sounds good too. Moral of the story? Sometimes good shit makes it through. No Misprint

http://www.sevendust.com/

Grand Halls 35

ASIA – “Asia / Armed To The Teeth” – (Orginally private, ASI ’78 / ’80, Re-issued ’95, The Wild Places, US) – Melody, especially in hard rock, has always been important to me. Think of the best: Thin Lizzy, Riot, Winterhawk, Rush…. The melodies are so searing and deep that your brain is branded with them. In fact, I read an interview with Riot’s Mark Reale once in which he said “I can’t even listen to anything without melody.” Then listen to these 2 records by ASIA (and NOT the shitty pseudo prog group with John “I ruin every band I join” Wetton). This pair of beauties, which I learned about thanks to the CD re-issue in ’95 by the late Michael Piper, is the absolute king of this theory. I always hate using comparisons but ASIA reminds me of a cross between UFO and old Kansas! Or, for the more obscurely-inclined of you, how ‘bout chewing on a lunch of Full Moon, Winterhawk and Asbury. While the self-titled debut record is damn good, and verging on essential, I must say that “Armed To The Teeth” is nearly in the godly variety, up there with Rush’s “Fly By Night” and Winterhawk’s “Revival.” This is gorgeous progressive hard rock that is world class in everything except the level of acclaim that it received. The vocals of Michael English and Larry Galbraith are devastating and the guitar work of Mike Coates is beyond ridiculous. Listen to “Thunderrider” or “Genghis Kahn.” I mean, Jesus Christ, how do you top that?! Some people will say, “Well, Ray, it’s not that heavy.” Well, go listen to some Satan’s Penis death metal album then and leave me alone. The original LP’s are super rare and have been known to bring big dollars, but if you poke around online I’m sure you can find the nice CD package that includes both records. Carnivorous

All Is Revealed

REVELATION – “For The Sake Of No One” CD ’09 (Shadow Kingdom, US) – There go John Brenner, Bert Hall & Steve Branagan again, fucking me up. I was just sitting in front of the fire during the season’s first snow, beginning my annual task of whittling 2009 into a fine piece of wood that will eventually share my year’s best when I heard that sound. It’s the sound of a parcel being dropped into the mailbox outside and the deep, resonant tone tells me I’m going to see the initials “J.B.” at the top of the return address. But let’s hold on a minute, because there’s an even odder tangent to this story.

Earlier that day, 2 things happened that cast an eerie aura over that day’s mail delivery. Fist, in the morning when I’d gotten up to dress, I reached in the drawer to pull out a t-shirt and what I’d grabbed ended up being one of the REVELATION persuasion. Poised a moment over a drawer containing maybe 50 shirts, I hesitated then exchanged that one for a Phillies “t,” thinking somewhat weirdly (but again, that’s me) “I need to pick up the new REVELATION before I have the nerve to throw that shirt on.” A few hours later, when engaged in a sports conversation with 2 of my boys, the subject came up about the time an NFL commentator stopped an entire halftime show by using the word “promontory.” Seemed none of the other jocks had ever heard that one before. And, to be honest, I hadn’t heard it in awhile either. However, I “heard” it for the 2nd time in that one day when I opened the mailbox and found in it the new REVELATION CD, sent to me by John Brenner and sporting a song called “On A Promontory”!

But ok, all of these tie-ins aside, what have this dynamic trio offered us this time around? Well, it’s necessary to point out that Mr.’s Brenner, Hall & Branagan are in fact TWO bands, REVELATION and AGAINST NATURE. When they take up their A.N. mantle, the slant is toward more progressive and experimental music and REVELATION sees them forge the path of doom metal. That’s not to say, however, that AGAINST NATURE doesn’t include some heavier moments nor that experimentation is a taboo word in REVELATION. It’s that flowing dichotomy that makes these 3 musicians so special.

“For The Sake Of No One” opens with “A Matter Of Days,” a number that immediately draws 2 points to the fore that often get lost in reviews and those are John Brenner’s ever-increasing vocal prowess and poetic lyrics. I’ve personally witnessed John flower as a singer over the years and his emotional mid-range is haunting here, commanding lines like “…A brick gazebo in the rain, a conversation in the midst of machines, Ice thick on the reservoir….” This is all borne on a crushingly slow rhythm that seems to nearly halt at the top of a precipice, then tumble over into a mid-paced groove, accelerating incisively into the up-tempo coda. “Offset” follows, a stately procession over 7 minutes. Then comes “Canyons,” once again beginning slowly. The nasty, cutting tone of the guitar solo around the 5:00 mark belies it’s heart-wrenching melodies. The coda is Vitus-like in it’s insistence yet mellow in it’s tenor as this 9-minute epic draws to a close.

Around the album’s mid-point, “On A Promontory” takes flight on an absolutely kick-ass mid-paced riff. REVELATION is really motoring here, with Bert and Steve locking into a massive groove. Truly, Hall & Branagan may be the most organic-sounding rhythm section working in rock music today. Over top their thunder, Brenner lays down some brain scalding wah-wah leads that’ll call your mother names and then stomp your ass for you if you need it done. Holy shit, this sounds like Poobah meets Sabbath! “The Whisper Stream” sees the band dial up the melody once more, in a subtle and thoughtful mid-pace before a barnburner of a Crimson-like middle section crashes in. The rhythm here is just sick and the leads hurt! Somebody get me a doctor, baby!

The album then ends with an especially strong pairing, “Vigil” and the title cut. The former, stretching nearly 9 minutes, employs one of the best rhythm changes NOT authored by Tony Iommi just before the 3:00 mark. The latter sees the band once again effortlessly fuse philosophical doom with timeless melody and a pensive guitar solo that reinforces Mr. Brenner as the tone-master he’s become of recent years. Beyond anything simply called “metal,” REVELATION weave a tapestry so rich and colourful as to know neither bounds nor specific genre. Guess I’ll wear that t-shirt tomorrow. For The Sake Of Those Who Like Great Shit

http://www.againstnature.us/
http://www.shadowkingdomrecords.com/

Wye Knot?!

WYE OAK – “The Knot” CD ’09 (Merge, US) – WYE OAK. It’s a couple words that conjure some different things for me. The obvious, of course, is the aged historical tree, the oldest white oak in the U.S. and a pride of Maryland that was finally felled by a thunderstorm in 2002. It shared it’s first name with the town of Wye Mills, one that I passed a million times on my way across the Eastern Shore to summer spot, Ocean City.

The second is the teacher I had for 5th Grade. To be plain, the woman had the loudest mouth I’ve ever heard in my life. Virtually anywhere you stood in the 3-story school building at any time between 9:00 and 3:00, it was an even bet that you would be able to hear her screaming at the top of her lungs at somebody. She once had the audacity to put me out in the hallway for talking in class and while I was out there, she collected a project on which she then gave me a “zero” because I wasn’t there to turn it in. Nice. Anyway, after a number of years, she retired to Wye Mills and founded a company with her son, making an absolutely fabulous crab soup that sold all around Maryland. Years later, I felt a poignant tinge when I’d heard she’d died.

Thirdly, there was the summer night I walked into Fletcher’s night club in Fells Point, MD and onstage were a super-cool heavy and bluesy band called 60 Watt Shaman. As I turned to face the stage, the lead singer, a huge dude bathed in sweat and with the voice of 1000 years, leaned back and bellowed into the mic, “Wyeeeeeeee River!!!” The thundering rhythm, oppressive heat and desperately soulful vocal delivery instantly transported me to a sweltering back porch in an Eastern Shore town.

So what, you may ask, does all that have to do with “The Knot,” the 2nd effort from Maryland’s own WYE OAK? To me, the simple connection is that this duo (Andy Stack & Jenn Wasner) has chosen a name with great depth and who’s music correlates well with that. Interestingly enough, “The Knot” fell into my ears not long after reading Ripple Racer’s commentary on autumn as a season, and it’s a record that really has that feel. The instrumentation is still laced with sparks of the flickering embers of summer, yet there’s a starkness that creeps into the songs to hint of what’s to come. It’s a notable dichotomy in that, especially with Wasner’s vocals, a personable warmth comes through the other side, arising through the chill…one that speaks of the sparks of a fire, a warm drink and friends gathered ‘round. Sure, there’s enough forboding of the deep freeze to come, but that’ll be in time and it’ll be faced with the strength gleaned from the haunting, rising and oddly uplifting feel of songs like “For Prayer” and “Mary Is Mary. It’s almost like Neil Young & Crazy Horse having a religious epiphany on a frost-chilled mountaintop. I’m glad I can listen to the soundtrack. Knot To Be Taken Lightly

http://www.wyeoakmusic.com/
www.myspace.com/wyeoak

Cuppa Joe

THE ALEXANDRIA KLEZTET – “Peace, Love and Coffee” CD ’09 (Private, US) – I am about to make a brutal admission. Up until a couple weeks ago, I had no idea what Klezmer music was. And, who am I kidding, I still probably don’t. Klezmer is defined (by that all-knowing, all-wise and sometimes infinitely wrong thing called Wikipedia) as: “…a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism…. Klezmer is easily identifiable by its characteristic expressive melodies, reminiscent of the human voice, complete with laughing and weeping. This is not a coincidence; the style is meant to imitate khazone and paraliturgical singing. Several techniques are used to accomplish this. There are krekhts 'sobs', and dreydlekh which are a form of musical ornament similar to a turn or trill.” So, there you have, better than I could have ever put into words.

The problem is, why am I telling you all this and why does it suddenly mean something to me? Why that’s because those very few weeks ago I received in the mail a packet containing the fourth CD by Washington/Baltimore area band THE ALEXANDRIA KLEZTET. The first thing I did was pop it in the player and upon hearing the first cut, my initial impression was, “Damn if that clarinet & violin doesn’t sound like it’s laughing!” Then, you go back & read that description and it all starts to make sense, especially when I then hear a track like “Lev Tahor” and I get the feeling, for all the world, that the instruments are crying. And, I realize as well, that I’m listening to something that on the surface sounds like a cross between chamber music and traditional jazz and yet it also sounds familiar (!!!) to me, the rocker! Really ,it’s pretty amazing to get that kind of emotion out of a kind of music I’d never heard before in my entire life. And that’s what’s alright with me about this disc. Like I said, I don’t know enough about Klezmer music to critique what this band is doing in the traditional sense. What I do know, however is that when I play “Peace, Love & Coffee” I get a good feeling. Surely, from the technical standpoint the group knows their way around their instruments. At the same time, and far more importantly, the sometimes jazzy, sometimes somber, always sans-vocal music here is immediate and personable. It simply sounds good and makes me happy…and I don’t even like coffee! Try a cup today. Visualize Whirled Caffeine

http://www.kleztet.com/

Child In Time

BLACK BONE CHILD – “Black Bone Child” CD ‘0 (Private, US) – 2 people in a band. Were I an individual of the close-minded variety, I might think to myself, “Sounds like a White Stripes wanna-be” and walk (no, run!) the other way. But 2 things sent me pointing in the direction of BBC’s debut instead. One was the fact that I am the sort of guy who takes everything on it’s own terms. The other was that the recommendation on this one came straight from The Ripple Effect's master of ceremonies, the one and only Racer. Being a man of impeccable taste, I tend to take his giving of props seriously. And so, my email to Donny James went winging across the ‘net to Austin TX. I suppose that shoulda been another tip-off, considering that SXSW City seems to be the epicenter for all things musically cool lately. So, as these things usually go, I waited patiently by the mail box for the ‘CHILD’s eponymous disc to arrive. What would it reveal?

Simply put, when I tore the envelope open a week later and planted the circular contents in the Realm O’Matic, I had a big problem on my hands. The problem was, where did I put that Websters New Dictionary Of Superlatives. I also had a 2nd problem and that was, how do I get this sum-bitch out of my player? Maybe I need a special tool that removes CD’s that are so damn catchy they lock their hypnotic grooves into the insides of my digital Wurlitzer and hang on for dear life. And, yes that’s the deal with this spiffy little thing called BLACK BONE CHILD. Any fear, any trepidation about some indie kids wanting to be Jack White vanished with the good-time handclaps of “Time Pass Me By.” Man-e-daze, talk about a fun song! I had just seen my wife walk out with my best friend, take my pick-up truck and last bottle of Jack and I was still up, dancing and singing. Well, I was kidding about the bottle of Jack (lol!) but you get my point. This is music that will put a serious smile on your face without a tad of smarminess or cornball humor. “Ha Ha Hey Hey” crops up next and I’m hearing what could only be described as a cross between the grooves of early King’s X, massive harmonica fills and a chorus that could be a far happier cousin of the sing-along part of “Man In A Box.” Talk about some soulful vocals, as well! The distorted riffs of “Make Me Bleed” remind me of what it woulda been like had Keef and Angus jammed in the mid ‘70’s and “You’re Gonna See” jumps off a distorted bass groove like Dug Pinnick jamming on Shinedown’s “Sound Of Madness” in a New Orleans club. Man, what a kick-ass fucking song! And so it goes through the entire record…a mere 29 sweeps of the second hand that are so focused on a potent blend of Southern-style backwater groove that they render 65-minute corporate discs meaningless.

Funny thing is, after reading up more about BLACK BONE CHILD in an excellent interview on The Ripple Effect itself, I found out that the band is actually a 4-piece in the live format, consisting of aforementioned Donny James (guitar, vocals) and his partner in crime, Kenneth M (drums, bass, harmonica, vocals) joined by Steve Hudson (drums) & Jason King (guitar). Seems like this is a simple case of 2+2 = 4 and if you do the math and listen to the CD, it counts out a beat that spells great rock & roll! Two Rolling Stoned

NOTE: Read several more interesting articles about this bunch on the highly recommended Ripple Effect site: www.ripplemusic.blogspot.com

http://www.blackbonechild.com/
www.myspace.com/blackbonechild

If You Build It...

SHRINEBUILDER – “Shrinebuilder” CD ’09 (Neurot, US) – Funny thing about so-called super groups. Sometimes they’re not all that super. Take Blind Faith, for example: Clapton and Baker from Cream, Stevie Winwood (Traffic) plus hot-shot bassist Ric Grech (Family). It was ok but you weren’t going to confuse it with “Disraeli Gears,” were you. Sticking to a similar pedigree, how’s about West, Bruce & Laing? The Fat Man & Corky straight outta Mountain tearing it up with Jack Bruce? Wow! Um…again, decent but anybody rushing to trade their copy of “Climbing” for that one? Didn’t think so. Let’s move on in years to a little collaboration between Slash, Duff and Scott Weiland. Bleccchh! “Appetite For Destruction” and “Purple” are still right on your shelf where they belong, aren’t they? And so on, but the point is this: Just because you take a bunch of super-talents from different camps and throw ‘em in a blender, the results aren’t necessarily the sweetest nectar.

And so we come to SHRINEBUILDER, the much-hyped summit between Scott “Wino” Weinrich (The Obsessed, St. Vitus, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, etc.), Al Cisneros (Sleep, OM, etc.), Dale Crover (Melvins) & Scott Kelly (Neurosis). To make a long story short, the 5 cuts here are lengthy (in the 7+ minute range). Through their lumbering courses, numbers with titles like “Solar Benediction” offer morsels of each member’s specialties: Kelly’s ragged vo-kills, Wino’s “born too late” riffage, Crover’s thudding tubsmanshipt and Cisneros bottom-end psych plunder. For fans of the more experimental end of doom metal and the psychedelic extremeness, the results are palatable enough. They’re also a bit lacking in the focus of the best of any of the guy’s day jobs. An “ok” appetizer, but be ready to serve up “Punctuated Equilibrium” or “Souls At Zero” for a meal that sticks to the ribs. Under Construction

http://www.neurotrecordings.com/

The Farmer Rawks Like Hell

POOBAH – “Peace Farmers” CD ’09 (Alibi-Gustunes, US) – I have a funny story about the way I originally crossed paths with POOBAH’s Jim Gustafson. Well, I think it’s funny and I’m confident you will too. If not, no, I can’t give you the few minutes of your life back that it took you to read this, so sorry in advance. But if you love great hard rock besides wishing for comedy from your favourite music writer, delve in…you won’t be sorry.

Back in “the day,” I started collecting records and the first really “rare” one I ever got was the 3rd effort from Youngstown, Ohio band POOBAH entitled “Steamroller” (1979). All it took for me was Bart at local store Vinyl Discoveries to play me a tape of the 8 minute mauler “Jump Thru The Golden Ring” and I was on a quest for the holy grail. Feeling kind of sheepish, I ended up plunking down a hundred smackers for a cherry copy of this baby and what I learned was that if anything was worth that kinda price tag, it was this motherfucker. Laced from pillar to post with raw, distorted riffing from Gustafson as well as his melodic vocal range, there was more as well. Atop every song, Mr. Jimmy G applied a generous dollop of some of the most cochlea-mutilating, brain-scalding lead guitar known to man…or woman. And being a person who understands the difference in priorities between paying rent and spending another $ 200 on “rekids” (as my dad called ‘em), I quickly sought out “Let Me In” (1972) and “U.S. Rock” (1976). The former was an early ‘70’s gem that espoused that rugged Budgie / Toad / Sabs feel, the latter a mid-decade slice of brilliant FM hard rock complete with the addition of massive organ work. What tied it all together was the fact that not only was each of these platters just as top-drawer as the popular luminaries of it’s age, each was also packed to the brim with a full crate of Gustafson Solo Whoop-Ass. Here was a guitarist who easily took his place among names like Iommi, Page and Bourge in my humble opinion.

As time went on and I developed my printed zine, it became obvious to me that a glaring omission in my cannon of musical script was an interview with Jim Gustafson. The problem was, I had no idea how to locate this cat. So I went back to Bart, the record store guy who’d originally given me the POOBAH fever. Here’s where it starts to get funny. Bart looked at me for a moment and hesitated. He then pulled out a dog-eared book from under the counter and, in a hushed tone, read me a phone number. “Ray,” he began haltingly, “I’m a little worried about this.” His countenance bore the look of a man who was besieged with grave concern. “I was given this number by a guy who knows Jim but he warned me…says he’s not the friendliest character. Might hang up on you.” I have to admit, it wasn’t with the greatest hope that I dialed the number that night, and when the voice on the other end said “Hello,” I introduced myself half expecting to get lambasted over the phone. And here’s where it really gets funny. What followed was a lengthy, pleasant conversation with a man who, over the years has proven to be one of the most friendly, gregarious and humble people I’ve met in the music industry. Don’t know who that record store guy had heard about from his friend but it sure as hell wasn’t Jim Gustafson. Mr. G is one class act who not only produced 3 of the best records of the ‘70’s but has been a joy to work with on interviews, reviews, etc.

And so we come to 2009. Since “Steamroller”’s release some 30 years ago, POOBAH has continued to stomp the boards in the Ohio, Western PA, WV and East Coast area and has delivered some damn nice platters like “Wizard Of Psych,” “Furious Love” & “Underground.” Featuring a wide variety of guitar-drenched hard rock, Jim began to lace the music with a decided psych overtone that speaks of the maturity of a songwriter and musician with a long & storied lineage. Now, POOBAH has delivered their new disc “Peace Farmers” and I have to say that it is an unqualified barnburner. In fact, it may be the best one yet! There’s little doubt that Jim & crew came to bring it as the haggard fuzz riff of “Ripped” comes tumbling out of the speakers. The rhythm section (bass – Brian Muth, Jimmy G, George DiGiovanni, Wood Hupp; drums – Mike Fortino, Wood Hupp) plants the seeds of a smoldering groove and Jim sets his 6-string acid tractor in gear, plowing the rows with an alternation of pillaging riffs and searing lead lines. Elsewhere, everything just continues to turn to gold: the neck-snapping Gibbons-like funk of “It Out,” the heavy SRV shuffling in the verse of “This” and the completely re-worked “Let Me In” classic, “Live To Work.” Still, the crème de la crème are the 3 lengthy epics spaced throughout “Peace Farmers." In “Mood” (8:25), “Fly Away” (8:15) and “86 Times” (9:12) we really get to see the full talents of Jim Gustafson flower as they haven’t since “Steamroller.” Whether it be the former’s upbeat rockin’ vibe, “Fly Away’s” ethereal spaciousness or the insistent plundering heaviness of the latter, Jim’s exploratory guitar work is nothing short of stellar. In each of these cuts, the man’s guitar stretches long, gossamer strands of feedback-drenched lead across seas of musical intrigue that would sit equally as nice at 125 dB in a bar or on headphones at 1:00 AM.

Long story short, POOBAH is not only a band that’s been a going concern for close to 40 years. It’s an American rawk institution and Jim Gustafson continues to guide it into a very special spot in the musical hall of fame. What still has me wondering is who the hell the guy was that Bart told me was “not the friendliest character.” Maybe Jimmy G could give him a call and make him smile! Nice one, bro, this one’s a masterpiece! Peace And No Quiet

http://www.poobahband.com/

www.myspace.com/poobahband

A Conversation With ANDREW DUGAN...Music and Life Foretold!

I’ve gotta admit, I haven’t seen the “2012” movie yet. Maybe that’s because I’m too busy writing the articles on this site! Nah, just kidding, I love what I do and every now and then I do get out with my wife and/or kids to check out a flick. To be honest, though, I haven’t been a big fan of the end-of-the-world, disaster things of recent vintage. But I have to admit, after hearing the apocalyptic-yet-oddly-beautiful solo effort by ANDREW DUGAN entitled…wait for it…”MMXII,” I was bitten by the bug. Mr. DUGAN has also been the vocalist in modern-metal locals FORETOLD the last few years and their “Just The Tip” disc got a nice review on The Realm some months back. Still, even that didn’t ready this scribe for the depth of passion & vision present on “MMXII.” Just recently I had a very revealing and interesting conversation with ANDREW concerning his solo music, life with FORETOLD and other assorted topics. Check it out below…



RAY - So, let’s start at the beginning, shall we? What combination of things led to a certain Mr. Andrew Dugan traveling down the road of musician, songwriter, etc. rather than being the guy who turns on the local FM rock station in the car and leaves his involvement in music at that?


ANDREW - I had always wanted to play music. Every year when I was growing up I had some sort of band I was in whether it was real or not. I had a band in preschool my parents told me that I called the “Rockin Rats”. We never really played music but we thought we did lol. After wanting to be in a band and taking guitar lessons for awhile, my parents put me into a camp for several summers called DayJams. This probably did the most for me as making me want to be in a band and make it a serious thing.


RAY - Who were your influences when you first got into music? Do you still look to them for your listening at this point? Who do you like / dislike these days? Why?


ANDREW - Led Zeppelin, I loved the hell out of zeppelin when I was really young and it made me want to start taking lessons in middle school. I started taking lessons and my buddy got me into “SCIENCE” by Incubus. That CD super influenced me to write/do music. I became over obsessed with Incubus before I got into high school and my freshman year. As I moved through high school my tastes changed and I started liking A perfect circle, Mike Patton and all his projects (while not everything he’s done lol), Manson, 311 and Alice in Chains. Nowadays I really just listen to classical more then anything else but the bands I really like right now are Radiohead, Dub Trio, The Grassy Knoll, Fight Amp, Porcupine Tree, Mudvayne. I still love zeppelin but with all the new music out its hard to go back into what’s already been done.


RAY - Why is Baltimore such a miserable and drab place? Or is that just my cynical, 51 year old assessment?


ANDREW - I think it’s in the eye of the beholder. I see a lot of evil in Baltimore and secretly think that some big evil thing is going to happen there but I don’t know what. But besides the evil that lurks in the dark creepy wet street corners I think it had a lot of beauty that goes unnoticed. So to answer your question it’s a little of both.


RAY - At this point, you’re involved in both a band situation (FORETOLD) and your own solo stuff. Let’s address the band thing first. What are the origins of FORETOLD? How did you come to record and release “…The Tip?”


ANDREW - Foretold formed in early 2004 with a totally different lineup then it is now. I tried out for the band in December 2004 on Pindell’s birthday and was terrible but the drummer’s dad thought I had potential. We started playing out in 05/06 and played a lot of venues every other week. These were some of the best times I had with Foretold, before we had to grow up more than anything else. We came up with “Just the tip” because our old drummer Mike Fleagle used to say it at practice sometimes. We thought it would be a hilarious first album and decided “Ballz Deep” would be the follow up album.


RAY - How do you feel about that album, is it everything you’d hoped it would be when you first envisioned it?


ANDREW - I think this album turned out awful personally. We took a long time to track it. Like a REALLY long time, literally recorded over a year and mixed over 6 months. So each time we had someone else track we’d have a totally different view of what the song should sound like. This CD hurt our original lineup and has since seemed to send us into a weird depression. It just sounds bland. There’s not as much punch and bigness as we wanted with the tones and especially with our own performances on the CD. You can easily sense the fighting internally in the band with how it sounds.


RAY - What kind of situation do you have with the band in terms of writing? Does everyone contribute? How do the music & lyrics in FORETOLD typically come together? What makes a band work well together, in the studio and live formats?


ANDREW - Well Pindell would write the main riffs and we would piece together the songs as a band. I would write the lyrics and melody but everyone also had their hands in that a little if they didn’t like something lol. Studio wise we would play live to track the drums and then track separately after that. More recently we have been writing the music with me kind of there and then me working on vocals separately. I know a lot of bands that do this and thought it was lame but I actually like this better I think.


RAY - How much gigging has FORETOLD done? Have you played many shows in the Baltimore area? Ever done any with Shift / Deadlock?


ANDREW - Foretold has played a TON of shows. 2007 was our biggest year for shows as we played probably 30 in MD. We played with Shift a bunch of times at Sonar and at Rams head. One time we played with Jimmy’s Chicken Shack at Rams Head for their DVD taping and we actually brought out more people than they did. Summer of 2008 it begin to die down and we released our CD on 03/07/09 at Sonar. Since then we played the Static X show last minute in April but haven’t gigged since due to lineup issues.


RAY - RED LIGHT CHALLENGE: Ok, you’re given the opportunity of one of the following…what do you pick?

a. A chance to work in the studio with Maynard James Keenan
b. A chance to spend an all-night date with a FORETOLD fan who has a strong resemblance to Beyonce?

Feel free to comment as profusely on either as necessary!


ANDREW - I’d pick the Maynard James Keenan thing. I would definitely like to try out Beyonce but I have a girlfriend I love that would not love to see that happen lol. I feel like working with Maynard would probably be a very long and crazy night.


RAY - Now let’s turn to your solo stuff. Musically, “MMXII” has a completely different feel from the FORETOLD stuff…which is good! Sometimes, an artist does a solo record and I’m left thinking, shit, it sounds exactly like another band album, what’s the point? With your’s, that’s not a problem that’s even on the map. I’m hearing things that remind me of some of the more acoustic stuff by Roger Waters on “The Wall.” Am I close or are you going to say that Ray is just some dickhead writer who’s completely off base? Don’t be afraid to do just that, I need somebody to reign me in at times!


ANDREW - I honestly have never even listened to all of “The Wall”. After putting out the Foretold CD and promoting it I realized there was nothing to sell besides the music. I was so turned off by the CD in fact that it made me want to prove myself and write my own stuff for once. I had written vocals to Pindell’s music for 3 years and I just needed a break to remember what I liked playing. And wanted something I could promote as more than just music.


RAY - Lyrically, we’re talking about some pretty dark stuff, I mean even though this stuff is acoustic, nobody’s ever going to confuse it with a James Taylor album! Give me some insight into the idea behind the concept.


ANDREW - I wanted to write an album that was more than just a group of songs that had no association (Just the Tip). I took classes online at Berklee about the future of music and the decreasing value of CD’s. If you want it to sell it has to be more than just music. I anticipate that short DVD’s of music written to stories could replace the regular CD.


I had sort of a premonition with a friend of mine that the 2000-2010 generation was the generation that didn’t give a shit because we all thought the world was going to end. I wrote “0700” that night and finished it the following morning. After I had the idea of what I wanted to do. I then wrote out the story that the album follows and I wrote the music to each scene. As the music came together I wrote the lyrics to make the music more understandable with the concept. I wanted to make each song a different emotion of the prophet and of the people surrounding him. I wrote the CD in 2 weeks and spent about 6 months recording it and 3 mixing it.


RAY - Also, the record is short time-wise, but very “full” in terms of intensity. There isn’t a minute wasted and the effect is larger than a lot of longer albums. Any commentary?


ANDREW - I wanted to write a full length but was so excited with the form and sound of what I had I just felt it necessary to make it short. And also thought it would be cool for the concept to make the CD 20:12 in length.


RAY - How about shows / gigs with the solo stuff? Have any happened? Will any be happening?


ANDREW - None have happened but coming to the grips that it may sell some CD’s im working on getting back into playing the music again and planning a CD release for it sometime in the spring.


RAY - RED LIGHT CHALLENGE: How many steamed crabs could a Baltimore club owner chuck if a Frank Zappa could chuck Edgar Allen Poe? Be as creative as you feel necessary or just tell me to shut the fuck up and conduct a serious interview!


ANDREW - 665 maybe 700 I’ll have to check the stats.


RAY - What’s next for ANDREW DUGAN? The sky’s the limit…where are you aiming?


ANDREW - I want to play some ugly grungy metal. I just bought a Orange cabinet and a PRS a little while ago so as soon as I get a head I’m gonna start writing some noise metal type stuff. And if not that I want to write super pretty delayed guitar kind of stuff.


RAY - If you could give one piece of advice to a budding musical artist who has not yet recorded one song or played one gig, what would it be?


ANDREW - Never give up and never listen to anyone else’s opinions of your music. Its not your music if you make it for someone else’s tastes.


RAY - In all your time doing FORETOLD, your solo stuff, etc. what is the most odd, stupid, staggering or just simply vulgar thing that has ever happened? Studio, live, any place! No censorship or editing here (unless I feel like it…lol)


ANDREW - One time we played a gig at The Black Hole in Dundalk. We (Foretold) had recently found a black on white porno magazine from the 80’s in my buddy Nate’s car shop. Kong our bass player dressed in a giant white fur vest read it on stage in between each song while Pindell changed tunings. The one line that I vividly remember Kong reading was “Reaching for his thick black love snake.”


RAY - Any final comments?


ANDREW - Thank you for supporting me and genuinely appreciating my music.



It’s pretty damn cool when a release makes it’s way across this desk that I find both surprising in style and rewarding in depth. Couple that with the fact that ANDREW DUGAN is a young guy who’s made quite an early statement with “MMXII” and you’ll want to check it out immediately. Get writing!

www.myspace.com/andrewduganmmxii

www.myspace.com/foretoldmusic

RAYSREALM 2009 Top 10 Album Poll!!!

Well folks, it's that time again! We're reaching the end of yet another year of music and with that in mind, it's time for us all to go on record & make fools of ourselves salivating over a handful of the better platters of '09. So, send in your Top Ten albums (CD's, albums, records, whatever you want to call 'em). The only requirement is that they were released in 2009 (I know there is sometimes a sticking point over the date on the back of disc... e.g., sometimes something is dated 2008 and actually isn't available until 2009. What we're looking for is things that became available during 2009...you know what I mean.) Anyhoo, send in your Top 10 list to my email: raysrealm@aol.com The cut-off date is Jan 31, 2010 for the simple reason that we give you till the end of the year and then a little time to get your thoughts in order. Then, right after Jan 31, I'll publish the results of the poll, plus my own Top 10 for those of you who give a dern. BE SURE TO INCLUED YOUR POSTAL MAILING ADDRESS IN YOUR EMAIL! Anyone who sends in a Top 10 by Jan 31, 2010 will receive a kewl surprise from me in the mail shortly thereafter! So, list away! Again, send the Top 10 and your mailing address to: raysrealm@aol.com

Drinking The Blood Of The Newborn Colossus

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A Beautiful Noise

THE BEAUTIFUL CONFUSION – “The Beautiful Confusion” CD ’09 (Private, US) – Call me set-in-my-ways…actually, that would probably be one of the kinder things that people have called me...but when I hear the words “Seattle, Washington” a couple things come to mind. Of course, like my home town’s O-No’s, there’s a bad baseball team, The Mariners. There’s also a wealth of wet weather, beautiful scenery and a Starbucks on every corner. When it comes to music, though, my focus is narrower: Queensryche and the grunge scene of the mid/late ‘80’s. And that’s how this beautiful Confucius say: “Open your mind, son, all is not what it may seem.”

THE BEAUTIFUL CONFUSION are a band from Seattle and they have nothing in common with prog-metal concept albums nor flannel shirts and long hair flailing. In fact, when I slid this one in and the strains of “December Morning” washed out of the speakers, I thought I was listening to an early Eagles gem, maybe off “Desperado,” something like that. Hmm…I thought, haven’t heard something like this in awhile, as the smooth-yet-ultimately catchy country rock of “Heartland Mystery” continued. Much like those California boys (before they took the corporate turn with their later stuff), TBF display a knack, not for anyone named Sharona, but for mixing deceptively hook-laden pop with a nicely-crafted musical base. Eric Sviridas guitars supply an open-air backdrop for Dalen Bakstad’s vox which sport a throaty, emotional Alex Band (The Calling) sort of vibe. Where the band really take off, however is with track # 5, “Campbell Drive.” This slow, hypnotic number may not seem much in theory (it’s basically a verse and chorus repeated twice), but in reality it is a stunning piece that I’ve gone back to repeatedly. Similar in it’s originality is the slow and ethereal glide of “Windows 3.” Here, and increasingly in the 2nd half of this record, Sviridas’ guitar and the pedal steel of Jason Kardong engage in some simply gorgeous musical conversations. While not over-the-top in notes per second, these guys mesmerize in their ability to work wonders within the framework of the song. Never is this more evident than on the lengthy (nearly 6 minutes) “Rain.” With an almost orchestral feel, embellished by some well-placed electronic effex, this one slips on a coat that I’d describe as something akin to “Progressive Americana.” Figure that one out, while you’re then drawn into the bizarre 50-some second noise-interlude of “Casablanca” and led to the conclusion by “Little Co.”’s understated strains. Better yet, don’t try to figure anything out. Just buy this CD, put it on late at night and allow it to wash over you. For a thoughtful, pensive mood this is as nice a record as I’ve heard in many a moon. No Confusion Here

www.myspace.com/thebeautifulconfusion
http://www.thebeautifulconfusion.com/

Peruvian Gold

FLOR DE LOTO – “Mundos Bizarros” CD ’09 (Mylodon, Peru) – A quick tour around the internet will tell you very quickly about the luminaries who have come from Peru. They range from Saint Rose Of Lima (the first Catholic saint to emerge from the Americas) to Paddington Bear (yup, that’s where the character originates). Included in the list are also such notables as Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order actor, who’s mother was from there), 1959 Wimbledon Champion Alex Olmedo and soccer star Nolberto Solano. Well to that interesting role call I’m about to add the name of the 4 dudes who are about to become your new favourite heavy rock band? Doubt me? C’mon, by now you should know I don’t blow smoke. I speaka da truth, son, so sit down and listen to my words.

FLOR DE LOTO are a quartet of Peruvians who have just issued their 3rd album, “Mundos Bizarros” and baby, it’s going to clean your clock. But first…let’s get a sometimes ugly piece of business out of the way. One of you, who is perhaps a bit anxious, is going to read the name of the band at the top of this review and you’re going to do it…admit it, you’re going to Google it before you read the review. When you do that, you’re going to come across those dreaded words, “progressive metal,” and you’re going to recoil in horror. You’re going to imagine visions of a curly-haired muso, sitting on a stool at a Barnes & Noble in-store, peering studiously over half-glasses at the fretboard of a custom PRS, playing some sort of convoluted Phygrian scale. STOP! RIGHT THERE! That’s over, so file it away until the next time Fates Warning reforms or whatever the hell else. No, FLOR DE LOTO is very heavy rock with innovative and unusual song structures. Think of a cross between Side 2 of the first Sabbath record and early Iron Maiden…with flutes! The foursome (Alonso Hererra – guitar, vocals; Jorge Pucchini – drums; Alejandro Jarrin – bass; Junior Pacora – woodwinds) do some wonderful stuff on this record and trying to narrow it down cut by cut over the 13 here would be patently unfair as much as a gigantic pain in the ass, so I won’t try that one. What I will describe is the flowing, organic power that surges throughout the 60-plus minutes on offer. Whether it be one of the many instrumentals (written with a memorability that belie their lack of words) or a vocal selection wherein Hererra lends his smooth mid-range pipes to the mix, there isn’t a weak spot. Hererra is a monster guitar player throughout, something you know this here scribe is just eating up! The guy is a master of going from a soft melodic and acoustic intro to a full-on barrage of metallic riffs with such ease that you’ll wonder how you got there but will be ecstatic you did. His tone is thick, full and powerful as hell and his leads are exploratory enough, with a flair that speaks of an Adrian Smith, yet never over-indulgent. In fact, that points up to something I really love about this band in general. The songs are nearly all within the 4-6 minute range, allowing the band to make a powerful statement yet surely not to wander. True, the final title track runs to the 11 ½ minute mark, but it’s construction is so gorgeous and well-done that it reminds me (in writing style, although much heavier) of the ancient, REAL Genesis. And, as a final point, I have to say that my “other” favourite thing about this bunch is the work of Junior Pacora. This cat lays down some flute work that is right up there with the best I’ve ever heard, and his playing fits the heavy music like a glove, similar to the way Ian Anderson blends his instrument into Jethro Tull's raucous fray.

All told, I may have not yet heard FLOR DE LOTO’s first 2 records but I have to say that I HAVE heard “Mundos Bizarros” many a time now, and it is simply the real deal. You can call it prog rock, progressive metal, or whatever you want. Me, I say it’s not only one of the best exports from Peru…it’s one of the best albums of the year. Bizarrely Good

www.myspace.com/flordelotoprogre

You've Got A Doom Friend In PA - The ARGUS interview!

If you’ve been reading this site for awhile, you already know about the lavish mounds of praise I’ve slathered upon the debut release from Pennsylvania’s ARGUS earlier this year. If not, read as noted (it’s the 2nd one down in this review section below The Mishaps), then rejoin us to the right of the below link. Point is, if you dig heavy long songs, harmony guitar leads for the ages and vocals awash in all ranges of emotions, not to mention thought-provoking lyrics, ARGUS are for you…despite their somewhat hard-to-take-for-a-Ravens-fan NFL allegiances. But more on that later. You’ll just have to read the interview. So do it. Now.
http://raysrealm.blogspot.com/2009/07/killer-four-way.html



RAY - Butch, I know you were in PENANCE previously. That aside, I’m honestly not aware of the whole history behind ARGUS in general or you in particular. Can you give us a run-down of your career in music and how it all culminated (so far!) in this band?


BUTCH - I began singing in bands at age 17. First band was a band called DRUID. Had a lot of fun with that band – short lived as it was – maybe 1 year. That was the building block for all the followed. Played in a few bands in the Pittsburgh area – Lights Out and Child of Fire. When Child of Fire split I found an ad that PENANCE was looking for a singer. I auditioned and at the time it did not work out but we remained friends and eventually we started jamming for fun and from there began writing and that led to 7-8 years, 3 albums, a bunch of gigs and a short European tour. PENANCE finally came to a end/fell apart and I met the ARGUS guys. Erik Johnson is a fraternity bro of mine and I’d get these e-mails from him saying come see his band, ARGUS. Well, I never got out. Finally I get this e-mail – “Come see Erik’s last show with ARGUS”. Now I gotta go since I missed all the others. First things first – I was blown away by Andy’s bass playing. And the rest of the band was great too. I got to talking with Kevin when they were done and we stayed in touch via e-mail. We decided I’d come out and audition and if that worked out we’d work out a rehearsal schedule where I came out every other weekend etc since they were 1.5 – 2 hours drive from me. It ended up working quite well as 3 years, a bunch of shows and 1 album later will testify. That’s the short version. Every band was like a building block for the next. And I learned something new in every situation. I believe ARGUS is the best band I’ve been a part of and this album is the culmination of all my years in music so far. I am very proud of it.


RAY - What are your influences in music? Did you come up in a musical family? If so, how did that steer you toward your involvement in music today? Also, if so, how has your family felt about the heavier end of the music you’ve produced, have they liked it or have they recoiled in horror?


BUTCH - My folks liked music but not like I do. None of them were musical performers – I was the music nut of the family who decided he wanted to be in bands. My father died when I was young but my mother and stepfather were always very indulgent of my hobby as a music collector and very supportive of my musical activities be it chorus, choir, theater and later on my bands. They came to all my school performances and I think a concert or two when I started in rock bands. So, it was good to have folks who were on my side and kind of understood me LOL I’m not aware of how much of my recorded work they’ve heard. I know they heard some Penance because my mother and sister are aware that the song “Drown Me In A Sea of Empty” was about my father’s death. I’m sure the music isn’t up my family’s alley but I never really asked I guess.

My influences ? KISS was the most important. KISS was the band that made me want to be a musician. From the time I was 5 and my buddy and I would play “I Want You” over and over and laugh when Paul would stammer “buh-buh-buh-buh Babe I Want You !” to when I bought “Creatures of the Night” until today, they’ve been a constant in my life and have been a huge influence on me. I’m a KISS apologist – I’m the guy that will try to convince you that “music from The Elder” is a good album and that 80’s KISS is worth exploring. By the way – SONIC BOOM is one of their best albums ever. 2009 album of the year for me.

Beyond KISS I’d have to say The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Angel, Starz, Trouble, Saxon, Savatage, Metallica, Rainbow, Celtic Frost….. I don’t have enough time to list everyone. Metal, hard rock, 70s rock, old school R&B (Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic, James Brown, etc)…. I am a music nut – Johnny Cash…. Been on a big Southern Rock kick lately especially the Marshall Tucker Band…. I’m all over the map. And that’s just the old stuff. I’m surrounded by bands and musicians within this scene and otherwise that inspire me – Revelation/Against Nature, Orodruin, The Gates of Slumber, Pale Divine, Valkyrie, Earthride, While Heaven Wept, Slough Feg, Pharaoh, Apostle of Solitude….

If we’re talking vocalists – the biggest influences on me, or more accurately – my favorite vocalists are: Ronnie James Dio – he’s the tops, greatest metal vocalist ever. The complete package of power, range and charisma. Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson, Bobby Liebling, Frank DiMino, Robin Zander, Paul Rodgers, Steve Marriot, James Hetfield, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Steele, Biff Byford, Ian Gillan, Brad Delp, Marvin Gaye, Barry White, Johnny Cash, Freddie Mercury, Paul McCartney, Lars Goran Petrov….again, I could be here until next week listing singers I love. I don’t think I sound like any of those guys but that’s a sampling of singers that have really inspired me over the years and made me want to do this.

RAY - I know that ARGUS did a previous work that was released by John Brenner’s Bland Hand Records. How did that go and how did you hook up with Shadow Kingdom for this new self-titled release?


BUTCH - We recorded a 5 song demo and made copies of it which we sold at shows for cheap. In fact the first time we sold them was at the Doom or Be Doomed Festival in 2007 and we charged like $2-$3 and gave every dollar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. But John agreed to put the demo up on the Bland Hand site for download because we wanted people to be able to get it for free and hopefully dig it and spread the word. So, we’re definitely grateful to John and Bland Hand for giving us that platform. I’m hoping to give him some live stuff one of these days as well.

SHADOW KINGDOM came into the picture when our agreement with Tyrannusshit the bed. We knew Tim, had met him previously and it just so happened that as we relieved ourselves of a whole lotta nonsense he liked the band and was willing to release it for us. It was a no brainer – the label is already known for its great releases, it’s up and coming so we can grow with it, and Tim is a Pittsburgh guy so having our label in our back yard so to speak is a big plus. We are very happy things worked out the way they did.


RAY - What is the inspiration behind the band name ARGUS? I know that it is a many-eyed giant from Greek mythology and yet an old geezer like me from the musical ‘70’s can’t help but think of the legendary Wishbone Ash album from ’72 when he hears the name. Actually, the opening guitar piece at the beginning of “Devils, Devils” has that awesome, timeless dual harmony lead feel…yet it then explodes into something completely different. Comments?


BUTCH - Erik picked the name based on the mythological character. Obviously we hear the Wishbone Ash thing all the time and sharing the name of their biggest album plus utilizing guitar harmonies like we do – we’re always going to get asked that. The truth is that the band was named before I joined and before all the guitar harmony stuff really came into play in the band. When I first saw the band they had one song that had a killer double guitar section. That impressed the shit out of me. I eat that stuff up. I put mustard on it and eat it I tell ya ! When I joined and we began writing it was something we all wanted much more of and I’d have to say our influence there was a lot of Maiden and Thin Lizzy.

The intro to “Devils” was actually written initially as a way to start the album and it ended up that “Devils” would be the first song so the two were going to be side by side. Initially that intro was going to be given its own track # on the disc and be title….but we never came up with a title so we banded it with “Devils…” and there you have it. I like the majestic nature of the intro and then how it slams into “Devils, Devils” – I always loved when bands had these cool intros that were linked to their songs – like Judas Priest “Hellion/Electric Eye”…. Big, dramatic intro into that pounding song. Magnifique !


RAY - The “Argus” album certainly has doom metal overtones and yet, to me as a listener, it’s far from restricted to that area alone. There are, of course, those melodic harmony guitar parts and also is very aggressive, up-tempo & progressive at times as well, calling to mind bands like Slough Feg, early Maiden and, at times, even things like Confessor and Helstar, in the guitar dept. Commentary?


BUTCH - For sure, our influences are many and varied among us. It just so happens that they happened to overlap/intersect when it comes to the music we want to write, play and record. One thing we all love are guitar harmonies – Maiden, Slough Feg, Thin Lizzy, Valkyrie….so we look to add them where we can. We definitely also like to mix up the tempos and have some time changes. We don’t really set out to write a particular type of song but each person brings in a certain style and it just gels well. I’m sure if you asked any one person in the band there are things they’d like more of – me, I’d like to be a bit doomier at times…Jay would probably like to be more progressive….in the end, because we work so well together everyone gets some of what they want. It’s what makes us sound like we do and helps us fit in yet stand out with doom metal bands, true metal bands etc – we have a little of all of that working.


RAY - As far as Pennsylvania goes, you guys are from up near the Pittsburgh area, aren’t you? How does it feel to know you’re being questioned by a Ravens fan at this very moment? Does it increase your propensity to lie or simply to say “Your football team sucks!”


BUTCH - I’m a uniter, not a divider, Ray. I say “Love your Ravens fan as yourself”….because no one else will.

I do enjoy smack talk though but it is so much more enjoyable to do it in person when under the influence of many alcoholic beverages tempers can flare and fisticuffs can be threatened and perhaps utilized.

My wife’s sister married a Ravens fan. Imagine the shock in our family. He’s a good guy but…jeez.


RAY - Mike Wisniewski left the band since the recording of the album and was replaced by Erik Johnson. How has that transition worked out? I would think the intricacy of the guitar parts in these songs would call for a lot of practice in this regard? Am I right in that Erik was previously a singer? Did he hear Eric Johnson’s “Ah Via Musicom” album at some point and realize that, with a name like “Erik Johnson,” he oughta start playing the axe?


BUTCH - Erik was actually named after a serial kamikaze cunnilinguist, Erich Schwantz-Johnson. Erik has played guitar for years and he was the singer that preceded me in ARGUS. The transition was very smooth, we haven’t missed a step musically and personally he fits us to a T. The fact that he grew up with these dudes was a huge bonus. We couldn’t have made a better decision than the one to bring him back in.


RAY - Butch, you’re vocals are very melodic and yet quite powerful at the same time. That combination reminds me of, not style-wise, but in assuredness of Robert Plant. Also, Solitude Aeturnus/Candlemass singer Robert Lowe comes to mind. What kind of, if any, training do you have vocally? Do you do any special sort of vocal exercises?


BUTCH - I’ve sung since grade school – chorus, choir, drama, honor chorus/ensemble…. I have had some formal lessons but truthfully I have long been a very lazy student so I have learned some things but mostly what I do is untutored…. But when you have 4 different vocal coaches plus years of singing in school or bands you pick some things up….even some good habits amid the bad ones ! I am flattered by your comparisons – I would hesitate to even mention myself in the same breath as those guys.

For exercises – for years I used a warm-up CD that was a combination of some lip and tongue trills (via Seth Riggs Speech Level Singing course which is what a prior coach, Tim Aymar, used as his base teaching course) and some scales/vocalizes that I had on tape from a voice school I attended at one point. I just bought a warm-up CD by a jazz singer named Ellen Johnson. About a half hour- 45 minutes before I go on stage I do these warm-ups…which means I always miss bands I like that play before us L It does help prepare me to sing…doesn’t guarantee a flaw-free evening but it definitely helps. Otherwise I don’t have any exercises I follow – just superstition and habit – lots of water, trying not to talk before I show (inevitably I bump into someone I’d really like to talk to ….murphy’s law), no smoking pre-show, no alcohol leading up to the show, drinking throat coat tea…… There’s a health-food store in Squirrel Hill that sells these lozenges that I love (name escapes me…but I know them on sight).


RAY - How about lyrics? I know some singers don’t like to delve into their lyrics but if you don’t mind, could you take, say, 3 songs from the album and talk a little about them lyrically?


BUTCH - Yeah – I’m not a huge fan of trying to explain my lyrics because I feel like I know what they mean to me but I like that others can, and have, interpreted them to their own experience. But for you, a fellow traveler in the world of ANGEL, I’ll talk about a few……

“Devils, Devils” deals with the darker side inside us all. We all have traits that we are cognizant of that are not pleasant be it selfishness, jealousy, narcissism… SO basically “I’m a phantom, my demeanor – facade” is basically “Look, you are seeing one thing, the good person but inside there’s this ugliness that might make you feel differently about me…”

“The Damnation of John Faustus” is based on Christopher Marlowe’s EXCELLENT “Doctor Faustus”. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. The story follows Doctor John Faustus who has sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for power on Earth given him by demons who do his bidding for 24 years (for 4 years and 20 as servants we lay at your feet). Of course the catch is at the end of this period its time to pay up – his soul. And how he is taken is not pleasant – being torn limb from limb. It’s the classic tale that’s been told many ways over the years and this is our version of it. For this one I adapted some of Marlowe’s wording directly into the song itself. I think it came out great and is one of the first things I’ve done based on literature. It won’t be the last.

“None Shall Know The Hour” is based upon the case of the Millerites who were a Baptist group led by William Miller. Miller convinced them that the Second Coming of Christ would be October 22, 1844. Many of them gave up their possessions. There are stories of people digging graves and lying in them waiting for the Lord to take them. They waited on hill tops, dressed in white. When Christ did NOT come it became known as “The Great Disappointment”. The story itself was very interesting to me but so is the other context of the song which is the eternal debate of belief and unbelief and the fact that no matter what side you fall down on no one knows…. No one.


RAY - Can you picture ARGUS ever doing a song about a huge…er…entertaining woman like “Whole Lotta Rosie?”


BUTCH - Somewhere there’s a song about a woman named Bertha, a big sack of flour and a young lad aiming for the wet spot.


RAY - Does ARGUS get a lot of female fans? I mean, hey, even if a chick is a Steeler’s fan, if she’s hot, she’s hot, right?


BUTCH - Have you taken a good look at our band photos ? Other than our wives/girlfriends, who all wear glasses, ain’t no woman-folk throwing their panties on the stage at an ARGUS show. I think the length of our…..songs is not stripper pole friendly enough or something. It inspires sweaty young males with bad skin, worse hair and beer bellies to get drunk and proclaim “I love you man !” or “wooooo!!! METAL !! Fuck yeah !!”

Just as an aside – I take it as a personal insult to my masculinity and birthright as a lead singer that in 21 years of fronting bands not once have a had female undergarments thrown my way. It’s a sad day when a singer, even an ugly one, can’t even come home with a soiled pair of granny panties with the Ravens logo emblazoned on the arse.

RAY - RED LIGHT CHALLENGE: If you had the choice of one of the following, which would you pick:a. An audience with the Popeb. A chance to give Angelina Jolie private vocal lessonsc. An opportunity to join the southern rock band of your choice


BUTCH - By “give Angelina Jolie private vocal lessons” do you mean showing her my oral skills ? If so, answer B. Otherwise – plunk me down in a Southern Rock Band…so long as the set list includes “Blue Ridge Mountain Sky” by the Marshall Tucker Band.


RAY - What’s up with ARGUS as far as gigging goes? I know you’re playing the fest in Frederick MD in early September. Any long-term touring plans or gigs closer to Baltimore? What about overseas? If you have a steady job & family, how does this impact the touring decisions?


BUTCH - Having families and serious, full time jobs puts the brakes on any idea of ARGUS ever being a touring band beyond some weekend warrior type stuff and the possibility of a very short 1-2 week tour once every couple of years. The fact that at this point the costs for that stuff comes out of our pocket also hinders what we can do easily. I’ve got 4 little kids. Jay has one. Andy has one. And Jay and I are the only guys in the band who actually get paid vacation so that aspect makes it really hard for us as well.

That being said – places like Maryland, Eastern PA, Ohio, New York, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois….these are all places we can easily hit on weekend trips so hopefully we can squeeze several road trips in over the course of a year.

As far as overseas – we have our fingers crossed for 2010. Unfortunately nothing solid yet but we’re exploring the possibility of a short European tour. I would love to go to Japan as well but not sure how to go about making that a reality.


RAY - I know it’s awfully early on, so I don’t expect you to be awake…no…I mean, the album has just come out, but is there anything new on the agenda as far as new ARGUS material? Do you see Shadow Kingdom as a long-term home for you guys?


BUTCH - We’re writing the next abum now. It’s coming in in bits and pieces but we have many bits and pieces. The challenge is to write an album that we can honestly look at each other and say it is better than the debut. That’s going to take some time and some brutally frank talk at rehearsal but I think it will be worth it to be very open and picky when called for.

We’re happy with Shadow Kingdom so far. We’ll have to see how the CD sells and how he feels about it when the time comes to talk album 2.


RAY - What do you think of the whole “download” vs. “hard copy” (CD, vinyl) presentation of music these days?


BUTCH - You can’t stop technology so there’s not much sense in fighting against it. It would be like folks who read by candlelight bitching about the light bulb. That being said I am still awfully enamored with LPs and CDs. I think the whole download thing really takes away from the whole experience of listening to the music and reading the liner notes, looking at the album art etc…. I love to have the whole thing. The music is the most important thing so as long as it gets out there – great…but it just isn’t as much fun to simply download something as opposed to spending hours in record stores flipping through LPs and studying the art and band pics and trying to guess what they sounded like. This was how I bought a lot of good albums back in the day. “Hey – who’s this band, Fates Warning? This one is called Awaken the Guardian…look at that cover….it’s gotta be metal. I’m buying it.” Ditto “Run To The Light” by Trouble, “The Warning” by Queensryche…. Just to name a few.

I’m glad vinyl seems to be making a bit of a comeback. And a lot of the labels taking the time and risk on vinyl are really doing a great job with it quality-wise – heavier vinyl. Nice packaging. Extras.


RAY - RED LIGHT CHALLENGE: If a meerkat were to mate with a Gibson Flying V, what kinds of effects would it sound best plugged into if the radius of China is temperate?


BUTCH - Aisha Tyler naked is the obvious answer.


RAY - Always a favourite around the Realm, this one: Tell us a crazy, wild, obscene or just plain grotesque story from the annals (anals?) of ARGUS, either on the road, in the studio, etc.


BUTCH - Honestly dude, we’re pretty boring. We’re pretty well known for our gas, in the van and at practice. Some of it is joke stuff like me whipping Erik in the face with my sweaty underpants or me sitting a short and curly on the toilet paper roll in our hotel room for the next guy to find. But mostly, lots of farts.


RAY – Any final comments?


BUTCH - Thanks so much for the honor of this interview ! It means a lot to us. And to the folks reading – thanks for your continued support and interest – we hope to see all of you in 2010 !

Oh, and….. GO STEELERS !!!



Anyway…. Do me a favour! I don’t care which NFL team you support or hate, if you’re a metal fan you simply cannot afford to go without immediately ordering the massive debut CD by ARGUS. Besides easily being one of 2009’s standout releases (it is Godly!), it is also much cheaper than a Steelers PSL and won’t cause you nearly the heartache this season.

www.myspace.com/theargus