May 19, 2008

The Night Marchers - See You In Magic (2008)

Front-man John Reis (a.k.a. Speedo), formally of Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes, The Sultans, and a handful of other relatively similar Southern California based bands, brings his unmistakable, rough, gravely vocals, crashing percussion and aggressive punk, hard rock and rockabilly guitars to his new band The Night Marchers. See You In Magic relies less on the short, high-octane, punk rock tracks of The Sultans, and attempts to rejuvenate the appealing intensity and listenability of the more pop rooted Rocket From The Crypt albums like RFTC and Scream, Dracula, Scream! (minus the horn section). The problem for me, someone who had unbashful album crushes for RFTC and Scream, Dracula, Scream!, is that The Night Marches have a very “been there, done that” sound that simply isn’t quite as good as the aforementioned albums. There are a few fun riffs and choruses, but I think the more successful tracks are the ones that slow it down and use rockabilly and classic rock roots to develop something slightly different. Overwhelmingly though, and unfortunately, the album is a mediocre revisitation to albums that I continue to listen to and love, so it is difficult to really enjoy.

My favorite track is: “Who's Lady R U?,” with “You've Got Nerve” & “Branded” getting honorable mention.

1 Comments:

awmercy said...

I actually think this is a pretty good ablum, even if it isn't as fast and loud as Reis's work with RFTC. It gives his songs a little more room to breathe and stretch out. The lyrics, riffs, and oh oh ohs are not piled up on top of each other in the race to finish. Sure, it is unmistakeably Reis, but I like too many of the songs to dismiss it.