Rebelmatic are a band that speaks truth to power and whose power lies in speaking the truth so if that’s your bag you’re in luck as the band gears up for the release of what’ll be their by our count fourth full-length album to be called Black Hole Eats The Tornado whose title may sound like a made for TV movie on the Sci-Fi Channel but which you can bet stays true to be the band’s mission statement (or one of them anyway!) as heard on their first LP Prey For The Vulture (2009) in a sampled line of dialogue…
“The worst form of capitulation is to worship your conqueror’s god. That’s when he knows he’s got you mind *and* soul.”
…with Rebelmatic being a band that’s clearly all about mind and soul plus body too cuz good luck not throwing your carcass around recklessly when their music plays or if you’re lucky enough to see ‘em live ditto for entering the moshpit that forms within seconds of them taking the stage cuz they’re basically hardcore personified except that they can’t be contained by any single stylistic category cuz there’s plenty of funk, jazz, metal, and hip hop in their too so basically a musical Reese’s candy surprise for people who enjoy peanut butter in their chocolate or maybe more like the other way around…
…a band whose members are named Creature (lead singer/screamer/lyricist), Alkatraz (guitar), Karnage (bass guitar), and Ramsey Jones (drums) and if these names make Rebelmatic sound like a band of superheroes then you’d be on the right track (with Ramsey Jones clearly being their Clark Kent-like disguise type figure) cuz on stage and on record they’re akin to a Black Justice League of superhero types like if T’challa, Luke Cage, Lion Man, and Lobo teamed up and started writing songs…
…which makes sense cuz there’s a storytelling-type cinematic aura to their music and fitting to the season Rebelmatic’s latest single, their second advance single from the aforementioned Black Hole Eats The Tornado, is a song called “Help” which makes for the perfect seasonal listening what with All Hallows’ Eve happening mañana not to mention Samhain too and one only need look so far as the single’s cover image to get the horror-themed flavor of “Help”…
…with its variation on the iconic movie poster image of the original Friday the 13th not to metaphorically mix our holidays but with Camp Crystal Lake replaced by an image of NYC skyscrapers with the so-called Freedom Tower at it’s center but actually “Help” sounds more like an outtake from the Scream 3 soundtrack what it’s doomy nümetal/grungy anthemic vibe (granted Scream 3 was a sh*t movie but with a surprisingly dope soundtrack even with two tracks by Creed)…
…and right from it’s opening moments you can tell Rebelmatiic ain’t foolin’ around either with the song’s fingers-sliding-down-the-neck–neck-of-the-guitar opening split-second stinger followed by a dirty, descending riff that’s guaranteed to get lodged in your brain like Jason’s machete but hey that’s what hook-writing is all about but then after the 30-second mark it seamlessly bleeds from the grunge/nümetal flavored first verse into a more hardcore style punk chorus as Creature moves from an echoey brooding moan into a throat-shedding yelp:
Help!! you said you would Help
but Im left here all by myself
what am I going to do now?
let me out
Help!
Help!
Help!
…singing lyrics which may sound unexpectedly vulnerable on paper but when you hear ‘em infused with what appears to be every ounce of pain and fury pulsating thru Creature’s body, mind, and soul into the words it gets turned into something else completely not to mention Alkatraz’s slashing guitar solo that shreds like a comp councilor’s guts when confronted with a hockey mask-wearing maniac’s knife with Ramsey & Karnage holding down a thudding groove with the constrating vibes of the verse vs. chorus colliding in the second verse whose menacing vocals are wedded to a hardcore-ish double-time rhythm with a second chorus that only ups the ante with some fierce drum fills and it’s all over in less than two-and-a-half minutes as one last “HELP…Help…help” echoes into the distance…
…with one cool thing about the lyrics being how you could easily read them as the final throughs of a slasher’s victim *or* as a condemnation of this nation’s shredded social contract and the many victims of its winner–take–all economics (“they’ll give you your flowers when you’re Dead“) speaking of which Rebelmatic could and should be considered one of the founding bands of what we’re gonna call The Black Rock Renaissance currently underway in NYC with artists like Rebelmatic, Pink Tacos, and Winter Wolf holding it down alongside many others…
artwork in left panel by olafh_ace
…not that “Black rock” ever went away of course, it just keeps getting placed under new labels like “Afropunk” but really bands like Living Colour were already doing the Black Hard Rock thing back in the late ‘80s not to mention Death in the ’70 but people got selective amnesia as usual…
…and if you think rock or punk rock are inherently “white music” well homie don’t play that and neither would Chuck Berry (RIP) or Sister Rosetta Tharpe (the two Rosetta Stones of rock guitar playing, just ask The Rolling Stones) or Bad Brains of course who’re one of the core founding bands of hardcore punk period whom Rebelmatic cite as a major influence so strap in cuz Black Hole Eats The Tornado just from the title alone not to mention the advance singles sounds like it’ll be a superhero-style application of justice in the making…
Rebelmatic play tomorrow night, on Halloween itself, at Bowery Electric with Preacher Man & the Reivival, Winter Wolf, and Butterbrain
