Friday 10 November 2017

BAD MONSTER BLACK ~ DIABLO ....review


When we think about the underground rock scene we tend to think about four or five guys/gals cranking out raucous riffs and rhythms in the context of a band but there are also those out there, who for reasons of their own, eschew the whole band concept and like to do things all on their lonesome.
Jeremy Vibbert (a.k.a King Jeremy the Wicked, a.k.a Bad Monster Black)) is one such soul, a multi-instrumentalist from Kentucky with a head full of ideas and concepts who knows a thing or two about writing a good tune, three of which can be heard on his latest EP "Diablo".


Vibbert has, with  previous releases, "Doped Up Devils With Sexual Grooves", "Darkside" and "The Question of Sanity", leant towards the more sleazy end of rock'n'roll, albeit edged with a menacing darkness, but with "Diablo" Vibbert has embraced those darker edges and brought them to the fore giving the EP an almost doomic feel in places. First track "The Resurrection" exemplifies this new approach perfectly with Vibbert utilising darker,danker guitar tones, heavier rhythms and a diverse mixture of vocal stylings to ramp up the songs atmosphere and brooding menace, you can almost feel the spine chilling malevolence oozing from the speakers as Vibbert sings " I am that from which they told you you have to run from" and almost see the wicked glint in his eye as he asks "Why though? I don't know,I am so fun". Vibbert can't fully shake the sleaze from his shoulders though and on "Monstro" he doesn't try, instead he amalgamates that sleaze into his darker experiments with groove and arrives at a sound that accommodates both. Crunching riffage, massive percussion are the bedrock around which Vibbert weaves a tale of psychopathic tendencies and sexual deviancy, helped out by guest vocalist Dasya Smith, their vocal trade off of punky shouts and stoner roars taking the song on to another level. "Diablo" is up next and finds Vibbert/Bad Monster Black in full stoner/sleaze mode with Vibbert roaring "Give Me Sex, Give Me Soul, Give Me Fucking Rock And Roll" against a backdrop of dissonant riffage and thundering rhythms that sporadically break down into moments of funky ambience before erupting again into a volcano of heavily fuzzed groove.


Desert Psychlist recently spoke to Jeremy Vibbert/Bad Monster Black  after hearing a demo of "The Ressurection" and asked him whether the slightly darker direction of the song was the way he intended to go with future projects he answered "Yeah, I plan on trying to continue on this path with the music and see what else I can write and hopefully it wont suck" Well Jeremy if  the songs on "Diablo" are anything to go by it won't.
Check it out ....



#note: those purchasing the EP will also get 5 bonus songs
Diablo (Original Recording)
Saviorself
Doper (2017 Version)
Godmoney
Pond (Demo)

© 2017 Frazer Jones

2 comments:

  1. The amount of talent coming from one person is staggering! The shortcoming I see in many "one man band" projects, is that rarely is a single person equally gifted in all areas. That is certainly NOT the case here. The songwriting, musicianship, and production value on these releases is equal to (and sometimes better than) what is released by reputable labels/artists within similar genres. Each release in the Bad Monster Black catalog captures such authentic nuances of the musical flavor they represent, while showing increased depth and execution, building on the previous one before it. Well worth spending the $6 price listed on bandcamp, to pick up ALL 7 releases in the artist catalog. Thanks for another great recommendation FDJ!

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    1. My pleasure Marcus,glad you liked Jeremy's grooves enough to buy his whole catalogue, he is a bit of a musical genius in my book and deserves more exposure i hope my words will help him some way to achieving that

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