MEDIA Preview
Devon Allman’s Honeytribe
Space Age Blues
Provogue Records
By blending ’70s
soul, Memphis R&B,
and slinky minor-key grooves, Devon
Allman has found a
way to extend his
family’s amazing
musical lineage on
his own terms. His gravelly voice may be reminiscent of his father, Gregg Allman, but the
similarity ends there. (Musically, that is—the
physical resemblance is unmistakable.) This
Allman plays guitar with a high-gain edge
and slashing tone that suggests Gary Moore
rather than uncle Duane. With his wailing
harp, Huey Lewis lends a bluesy touch to
the album’s opening track, but despite the
title, Space Age Blues is more about vintage funk and psychedelic rock than blues.
Elements of Free (especially Paul Kossoff’s
fast, intense vibrato), Mountain, mid-’70s
Stevie Wonder (Allman covers “Sir Duke”),
and even Quicksilver Messenger Service swirl
and coalesce in Allman’s music, yet he delivers these retro influences with a 21st-century
flair. To paraphrase Billie Holiday, this child
has got his own. —Andy Ellis
Horseback
The Invisible Mountain
Relapse Records
40 PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2010
Equal parts krau-trock, stoner metal,
and art-house freak
show, this sprawling, 38-minute,
four-track epic challenges and delights
as it vacillates
between tortured, ethereal atmospherics and throbbing, druggy drones. The
former are driven by Mellotron-like keyboards and Jenks Miller’s delicate acoustics
and crystalline, echo-drenched electrics
treated with trance-inducing tremolo
(“Hatecloud Dissolving into Nothing”),
while the latter are powered by Miller’s
menacingly overdriven SGs and Les Pauls
(played through old Vox and Fender amps),
fuzzed-out basses, and throbbing drums
(“Tyrant Symmetry”). Instrumentally, it’s
like Sabbath, Sleep, Soundgarden, and
the lighter elements of Scandinavian metal
taken with a cocktail of Ambien and Dr.
Leery’s favorite hallucinogenic. Guttural,
lo-fi, and incomprehensible, the vocals
sound like the lamentations of an insane,
bitter sociopath complaining from the confines of his padded cell in hell. Thankfully,
the mad musings are accompanied by
enrapturing layers of melodic melancholy
that hint at the damned soul’s once-beau-tiful potential. Just barely too palatable
to be the soundtrack to E. Elias Merhige’s
Begotten. —Shawn Hammond
The Ultimate Metallica
By Ross Halfin
Chronicle Books
BOOKS
While he’s also shot
Iron Maiden, Def
Leppard, the Clash,
and the Sex Pistols—
all when they were
in their prime—Ross
Halfin’s most impor-
tant contributions to
rock photography are
his iconic shots of Metallica. With the help
of his Olympus OM- 2 and Nikon D3S, Halfin
has captured almost every move Metallica
has made onstage and off throughout their
legendary career. From the scrappy, denim
jacket days to the “I can’t believe they cut
their hair” years to the current lineup’s
mixing of Tom Waits-inspired attitude and
old-school thrash, everything is captured
in this 232-page hardcover. The showcased
images include spectacular live shots at epic
concerts like England’s Monsters of Rock
in ’ 87, as well as intriguing liner notes and
magazine covers. But the real mojo lies in
the candid photographs that only Halfin
could’ve taken: As the unofficial fifth mem-
ber of Metallica, he took shots of the band
at their highest peaks and lowest valleys.
The end result is a collection of intimate
visuals you’ll not find anywhere else. Halfin’s
most compelling images aren’t those from
the stage, but when the four horsemen let
their guard down behind the scenes.
Other than the love-hate foreword by Lars
Ulrich and the complimentary afterword by
Kirk Hammett, the book is short on context
or explanation from Halfin. But with photos
like these, there’s not much more to be said.
—Chris Kies
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
Zoe Records
DVDS
As the “world’s biggest cult band” (as
bassist/vocalist/
keyboardist Geddy
Lee says in the film),
Rush has developed
a loyal and expansive
fan base over the last
30 years. In Beyond
the Lighted Stage,
directors Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen
tell the trio’s story in their own words. The
documentary covers everything from when
guitarist Alex Lifeson first met Lee in middle
school to their current status as one of the
most influential prog-rock outfits ever. One
of the most memorable and lighthearted
scenes is when Lifeson and Lee try to track
down the location of one of their first gigs
in a funny trip through the basement of
some local churches. Another poignant
moment covers a period when the future of
the band was in doubt: Drummer Neil Peart
(whom Lifeson and Lee jokingly refer to
as “the new guy”) left on an open-ended,
55,000-mile, cross-continent journey in the
late ’90s to mourn the tragic loss of his wife
and daughter. The overarching theme of
the film is one of friendship and brotherhood through the power of music and how
a little band from Toronto became one of
the most influential bands of all time—are
you listening Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
—Jason Shadrick
www.premierguitar.com
