When the Devil comes to Moscow in The
Master and Margarita—the once banned, but now
classic 1929 novel by Mikhail Bulgakov that loosely
inspires Year Long Disaster’s new album, Black
Magic: All Mysteries Revealed—he asks a question
that rock music has always willingly embraced; “What
would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would
the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?”
Without evil, there is no good. Without shadows,
there is no beauty. Without contraries there can be
no progression.
Ever since the countercultural movements of the ‘60s
and ‘70s spawned heavy, acid and psychedelic rock,
one of rock’s mythological obligations to culture
has been to reclaim the chaotic and mutinous contrary
energies that have been otherwise exiled to the fringes
of experience through social codification.
These fringes are the setting for Black Magic; All Mysteries
Revealed, a landscape peopled by figures—whores,
despots, lovers, traitors and dreamers—liberated
from the myth that innocence is exalted but haunted
by the perpetual threat of spiritual disappointment
and emotional disaster that experience has taught them
to expect. The innocent may perceive more clearly, but
they don’t know what they’re looking for.
That is the devil’s wisdom, his black magic.
The energy generated by these tensions perfectly suits
the band’s sound, one that is fueled by Daniel
Davies’ howling vocals and blistering guitar that
flirts with the limits of control, only to be disciplined
back into order by unexpected melodies and the famously
tight bass and drums of Rich Mullins and Brad Hargreaves,
respectively.
Since their formation in late 2004, Year Long Disaster
have channeled the bastardized muddy blues stomps of
their forefathers and overlaid them with their own flash
and drama. Their 2007 self-titled debut landed them
tours with The Cult, Velvet Revolver, and the Foo Fighters,
as well as praise from critics and fans alike, including
Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister (with whom they
also toured) who told Kerrang! Magazine that "Year
Long Disaster plays rock and roll music like rock and
roll should be played."
At the close of 2008, with two years of international
touring behind them, the band secured Grammy Award-winning
producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains,
Rush, Marilyn Manson) to produce their new album. Conceptualized
for years and written on tour, Black Magic’s basic
tracks were completed with Raskulinecz in just sixteen
days at the famed Sound City Studios in Los Angeles,
CA.
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