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Review |
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From the moment you turn on ‘Black Magic:
All Mysteries Revealed’ (3) by Year Long Disaster
hard rock crashes against your ears. With roaring
guitar riffs and moody vocals courtesy of Daniel
Davies there is no denying their roots. You can
almost hear the strut and stage presence of an old
school rockstar through the speakers.
The album takes inspiration from the novel ‘The
Master and Margarita’ which is about the
devil rising in Moscow. YLD draws on the idea
that with no evil there would be no good and how
some actions can be misconstrued as evil when
they are in fact not. With such a philosophical
concept it makes for some lyrically interesting
songs such as ‘Sparrow Hill’. Although
the concept may not be totally original, like
the music, I find that it gives the songs greater
meaning and I think they pull it off well, adding
something more to just good vs. evil.
A lot of the songs on the album are quite fast
paced and catchy. My personal favourite is ‘Show
me Your Teeth’. This is unquestionably a
fight song that you would put on before a night
out. A lot of the songs are crowd movers which
is obviously what YLD are good at. You can hear
the American hard rock influence clearly in these
songs, and even though a lot of these up beat
songs may not be massively original YLD take their
obvious influences and make them into good songs.
There is no denying that they are good musicians.
Although a lot of the songs are hard rock belters
YLD do slip in the odd slower more reflective
song like ‘Seven of Swords’ which
to me has a Led Zeppelin feel to it, but I’m
not complaining. The 70s rock influence in this
song makes it work. ‘The Master and Margarita’
influence I think can be heard in this song as
well. This is one of their deeper songs on the
album and is one of my favourite tracks.
Although their songs are catchy and up beat for
the most part I couldn’t help but get the
feeling that I’d heard it all before. Now
I have nothing against hard rock, in fact AC/DC
are one of my all time favourite bands, but I
do like originality. This is not saying that this
is a bad album or not worth a listen. If you’re
a hard rock fan then this album is definitely
the one for you. However with three musical heavy
weights: Daniel Davies, Richie Mullins (Karma
to Burn) and Brad Hargreaves (Third Eye Blind)
I can’t help but admit that I expected something
a bit more.
3/5
Review by Nicci Peet |
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| Band
Members |
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Daniel Davies
Rich Mullins
Brad Hargreaves |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Black Magic (intro)
2. Show Me Your Teeth (Album Version)
3. Love Like Blood (Album Version)
4. Stranger In My Room (Album Version)
5. Sparrow Hill (Album Version)
6. Seven Of Swords (Album Version)
7. She Told Us All (Album Version)
8. Venus At The Crossroads (Album Version)
9. Major Arcana (Album Version)
10. Foggy Bottom (Album Version)
11. Cyclone (Album Version) |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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