BRMC Beats The Devil
by The Artistree
After being together for nearly a decade, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club released four monumental albums that have repeatedly set the standard for music. They’ve built a name for themselves in a gritty, dirty genre – a place most modern musicians no longer touch. BRMC stay true to the roots of blues, soul and folk but deliver with an annihilating sound that has righteously earned them their bonafide-bad-ass reputation! The band’s fifth studio release,
Beat The Devil’, fuses together their discography to showcase a balance of all four previous tones in what we feel is their best effort to date.s Tattoo
- “The Effects of 333” – their experimental, concept album –is omitted.
BTDT opens up with a track of the same name but carries over elements from their third album,
. It’s close to a holy sing-along with a blues vibe. For fans, this song has a clear message:
Howl
We’re fucking back…proceed with your worship!It was enough to sell us.
Track two, “Conscience Killer,” resembles the garage rock edge of
Take Them On, On Your Own
,their second album. It is a transition that signals the listener to be prepared for variety. “War Machine” – our favorite song – is a heavy, hazy tune, oozing sex. The rich instrumentation forms a foundation to demand that their best abilities be seen. For the introductory listeners out there, “River Styx” is another spot-on example of this classic, noisy fuzz.
You’ll find yourself shaking your head to the drums and singing more often than with any of their older material – “Mama Taught Me Better” is especially easy to get addicted to. “The Toll” features an exceptional harmonica solo. “Aya” – the second best song – has a dragging, sultry feel with a bass line to rip it all apart. The way “AYA!” is moaned from the throat will have you going back for more. “Shadow’s Keeper” is the third, having the coolest guitar riff heard yet from Peter Hayes. The album ends with a tremendous thirteenth track, slowly swirling to a close while
“It’s a cruel world that let’s us go”is sung
.In the final moments of “Half State,” the lyrics warn,
“I’m gonna catch ‘em, I’m gonna catch ‘em”before the band erupts and destroys – breaking down their style to its simplest form.
can be taken as a visual scrapbook of the band’s career. We often wonder what BRMC fans must look like to an outsider . . . Smoker’s propaganda? The Leather Jacket Cult? A good friend of ours says, “BRMC’s the best thing to ever happen to cigarettes!” To which, we say, “Yes, dude. Yes.” This band has yet to show their fans any glimmer of ever going soft. This is precisely why we believe that they are the last living treasure of rock ‘n roll for our generation.
Beat The Devil’s Tattoo
- March 8, 2010
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