Saturday 9 January 2016

Brimstone Coven - Black Magic (Album Review)



Release date: Jan 29th 2016. Label: Metal Blade Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Black Magic – Tracklisting

1. Black Magic
2. Black Unicorn
3. Beyond the Astral
4. As We Fall
5. Upon the Mountain
6. Slow Death
7. The Seers
8. The Plague
9. Forsaken
10. The Eldest Tree

Band Members:

"Big John" Williams - vocals
Corey Roth - guitar
Andrew D'Cagna - bass
Justin Wood - drums

Review:

Pentagram meets Sir Lord Baltimore meets Black Sabbath done the best I’ve yet to hear. Not surprised, 2014’s self-titled record was amazing but their new one, “Black Magic?” Damn I’m impressed. I’ve grown to disdain the term stoner rock so I won’t use that in this review plus I think it does the band an injustice here as there’s more going on musically than what the stoner moniker might imply.

Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Sheepdogs, Kadavar and Orchid and I’m now adding Brimstone Coven to this list of extremely good bands that know how to handle this style of music without IT handling them. What do I mean by that? Having a sense of genuineness, authenticity, a band’s sound being seamless and not forced or rehashed like a lot of other groups. Every track on this record is about as “real” as it gets coming from a band you’d swear was 40 or so years into their career by now.

Totally amazing record, amazing sound that shifts between Sabbath to Cream to any number of late 60’s early 70’s bands that exemplified that heavy, hard rock sound like Road or early Deep Purple, Toad, Blue Cheer, etc. “Black Magic” is a must have record if not THE BEST RECORD of 2016. Yep. Early January. That’s how good this record is. That’s how high Brimstone Coven has already set the bar for everyone else to follow. Lee Dorian wishes he had something to do with this record. Hell, he wishes he could’ve done this record. PERFECTION.

Words by Theron Moore

Thanks to Andy at Metal Blade Records for the promo. Black Magic will be available to buy from Metal Blade Records on CD/DD/Vinyl from Jan 29th 2016.

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