CHARM CITY DEVILS – This Hard Rock Band from the “Charm City” of Baltimore, Maryland caught my Metal attention last Summer of 2009. Their debut album – Let’s Rock-N-Roll was released on May 26, 2009. I have continued to listen to this album, quite regularly, since I bought it last Summer. Charm City Devils delivers American Hard Rock the Old School way… with foot stomping rhythms and melodic moments aplenty, Lets Rock-N-Roll is an album that flows along like a kickin’ keg party that ends too fast. There’s nothing ultra fancy about the Hard Rock Music of Charm City Devils… just blue collar and Hard Rock N’ Roll!
I blabbed about how much I like this album from Charm City Devils, with many more details, on October 18, 2009. There are those certain bands, that I just need to remind the world about more often, on Metal Odyssey. Charm City Devils is definitely one of those bands. Check out my past post on them, if you like, by clicking the header below:
Charm City Devils “Let’s Rock-N-Roll” – A Charming Hard Rock Album
I checked out Charm City Devils, last night, (Friday night), at the Crocodile Rock Cafe in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with Ryo Vie from The Rock and Roll Guru by my Metal side. Simply put, Charm City Devils ROCKED. I’ll have a few more cool details about this Charm City Devils concert, in the coming week… the headlining band that came out after Charm City Devils, well, they kicked some serious Metal butt! Stay tuned!
I hope you enjoy this Let’s Rock-N-Roll video and song from Charm City Devils as much as I do!
Now… crank this mutha up LOUD and Let’s Rock-N-Roll!!!
Stone.
I picked up my copy of Charm City Devils – Let’s Rock-N-Roll this past Summer, it was towards the end of July. On July 10, my mother passed away, she was as splendid, caring, giving and loving as a mother could possibly be for me. I received the news of her passing from my father… over the cell phone. We, (my wife and I with our twin daughters), were on our way to Connecticut by car with my courageous wife driving when this tragic news was conveyed to me by my father. We live in Pennsylvania, a solid three and a half hours away from our parents and relatives. The shock and sadness we all felt in the car at that moment can not be expressed in words here. Why I am telling this story is due to the Charm City Devils song Almost Home. You see, upon my first listen to Almost Home, I felt instant sadness, goose bumps formed all over my body and my thoughts instantly were directed to that awful moment in time – of receiving my fathers phone call about my own mothers passing away. It was only a couple of weeks after losing my mother that I first listened to this song.
Lynyrd Skynyrd are Southern Rock Legends and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. What more does Lynyrd Skynyrd have to prove? What keeps the motivation meter running with this band? In my Metal opinion, it is a combination of many things… the Skynyrd Nation and the fact that this band has never lost touch with their roots are two quick examples. Southern Music roots… family roots… old school values, these three attributes come out Southern Rockin’ loud and clear on God & Guns
Cheap Trick, “The Latest” may just very well be the album that proves this band has elevated themselves beyond the Rock Legends status. It is in my Metal opinion, Cheap Trick has become deserving of being called – Music Legends. Once again, Cheap Trick has not tried to reinvent themselves, instead they have created thirteen new songs that justifies their Rock and Roll existence and legendary status. What Cheap Trick has proven to me, with “The Latest”, is that I can marvel at this band and also learn a valuable lesson about life… the lesson of never giving into complacency. The last three Cheap Trick studio albums including “The Latest” is as strong a Rock Music achievement as I could ever hear. This band is just knocking out some of the greatest albums of their career, this decade alone.
I have been riding on a rather enjoyable, Progressive Metal & Progressive Hard Rock wave of music as of late. Am I complaining? Not when bands like The Mars Volta release the Progressive elasticity of songs that they have titled – “Octahedron”. It is Hard Rock music like this, that challenges the outer reaches of my very own musical senses. I suppose that is what Progressive Music is meant to do? I am not going to fib here, it took me well into my third listen of “Octahedron” to have “it” finally hit me. The “it” is the focused energy and streamlined patience and musical precision, that are consistent, musical nuances I hear in these songs from The Mars Volta. Let’s be real, these artistic lined, Hard Rock songs, with all of their progressiveness, were not written over night. Is it considered to be uncool these days, to have a thought process and spacial intellect towards music? Not in my realm of listening to Hard Rock – or Metal for that matter. The Mars Volta has thrown “Octahedron” to the progressive wind, it has blown my way and this is what I have to say.
“Since We’ve Been Wrong” has my inner psyche floating somewhere out there in 1979, the retrospective, ambient rays of melody I hear in this song, has me laying on a freshly mowed lawn, staring up at a clear blue sky. “Teflon” does not stray too far away from this dreamy type of feeling either, it only Rocks a little harder. “Halo Of Nembutals” has me agreeing with the assertion that lead vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala really does sound like the living legend – Geddy Lee of Rush. (This comparison has been thrown around quite a bit, it should be construed as a compliment, much better than being compared to the vocals of Jim Nabors, aka Gomer Pyle). With this song, carrying it’s way into “With Twilight As My Guide”, I tend to realize that I have fallen victim to a cascade of Progressive Hard Rock sanctity. I refuse to just stand pat and not let my feelings be known, about a band that is able to grasp the flexibility and open mindedness of song writing, both lyrically and musically. The Mars Volta apparently were either born as collaborative musicians or they visited some type of mystical being, in a tropical rain forest, who granted them the ability to eradicate themselves of any staleness and ego – thus anointing them with Progressive Musical powers.
“Cotopaxi”, “Desperate Graves” and “Copernicus” are three songs in a row, that I swear are a path that lead me to believing that the words status quo are not in The Mars Volta vocabulary. Omar Rodriguez Lopez has given new meaning to the phrase – lead, not follow – for if this musician were to follow, I would probably be listening to a band that wants to fit in and play it safe, like so many bands who don’t follow their hearts and instincts do. The same goes for Cedric Bixler Zavala, as both a vocalist and lyricist. If anything, I am completely guilty of being passionate about the music that moves me. The Mars Volta are just as guilty for being passionate in creating the music that stands up and above, so much so, the “Octahedron” CD cover does not even bear their name. It is the music that really matters, the music that stands alone, it is not a name of a band, the physicality or gender of it’s members, nor the image. “It” is really all about the finished product, the music and what it says. “Octahedron” speaks more if you give “it” the space and respect is so justifiably deserves.
Tesla has released an album of 12 brand new tunes this past year titled “Forever More”, it should not be ignored or overlooked. I feel this new Tesla album is a solid musical statement, (“Forever More” was released on October 7, 2008). All 12 songs are what I consider to be Hard Rock excellence that lyrically relates. The lyrics of these songs are a celebration of life’s ups and downs, delivered in true – blue collar, Hard Rock fashion from Tesla. “So What!” is a heavy, musically driven tune, it essentially tells you to shrug off the complaining in life, plus who cares about other people’s whining as well. “Pvt. Ledbetter” is a feel good track about a soldier who is going to come home from war, (not to give away the storyline), the first listen to this song had me worried that it would be a sad ending. Jeff Keith on vocals sounds like he is having the time of his life, he sings better than ever on “Forever More”, (in my Metal opinion).
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