Welcome to a special, aurora-themed edition of Tracks Of The Week, in which we celebrate the majesty of the skies, and thank the heavens that we didn't experience anything like the Carrington Event of 1859.
On that celestial note, we'll proceed with this week's big news, which is that last week's big winners were Brave Rival, who bravely beat out their rival Carol Hodge to secure victory, with Black Country Communion waaaaaaay back in third.
This week, it's an extra-special selection, simply because we say so. But first, here's those Brave Rival boys and girls again.
Below you'll find this week's stars. Enjoy their spectral majesty.
Battlesnake - The Key Of Solomon
"So it continues,” the Aussie seven-piece declare, by way of introduction to this cackling, hard-riffing thunderdome of a song, generously spiced with exuberant 70s solos and NWOBHM crunch. “A ghastly sorceress who dwells in the catacombs of the Motorsteeple. Brewing potions on sprawling pentagrams as she recites ‘The Lesser Key of Solomon’. She is the abbeys navigator. Long Live The Dungeon Witch!" Expect sorcery, gallons of fake blood and heavy fucking metal.
The Mysterines - Sink Ya Teeth
Built on a pounding, hypnotic one-note hook and waves of ‘moody party’ vibes, the London rockers’ new single sounds like the apex of the best late nights from your wildest days – that golden period just before the sun starts to rise, when the music and whatever you’ve ingested and whoever you’re with feel like the only things that exist. All of which is captured in the video, as singer Lia Metcalfe explains: “Basically, [we] got our label to pay for a huge party with loads of crazy characters. It was like a fever dream.. I went home eventually”.
Troy Redfern - Van Helsing
Possessing a ragged intensity missing in a lot of his bluesy guitar-toting contemporaries, Troy Redfern digs into a juicy, pensive place between Delta blues and sleazy glam on this highlight from his latest record, Invocation. “This is one of my favourite tracks from the new album,” says Troy. “It’s dark and heavy from the outset, musically reflecting themes of these times of uncertainty. The dystopian verse narrative is juxtaposed by an uplifting chorus that comments on the fact that we’re all looking for our own ray of light in this life to get us through.”
Orange Goblin - Cemetery Rats
Don’t be fooled. The first couple of minutes of Cemetery Rats might be all vampiric keys and lumbering steps like bovver boots through treacle, but from there it all gets much louder, madder and speedier. If you’ve seen Orange Goblin live, you’ll recognise the energy captured here – fun, heavy, fast and sharp as a knife through the face (in a good way) with a now-gym-honed/sober Ben Ward roaring their ghoulish tales with renewed glee. Watch out for their next album, Science, Not Fiction, which comes out in July.
Mother Vulture - Break Me
Easily one of the most physical, explosive live bands in rock today – with feet in metal, hardcore and Hives-y turbo-rock territory – Mother Vulture bottle that ferocity in the aptly titled Break Me. “Trying to ‘make it’ in the music industry mostly feels like you are banging your head against a brick wall,” the Bristolian four-piece say, “and we’ve been doing just that, a lot, very hard. We want the world to know, we’re not going anywhere. Whether that wall breaks first, or we do."
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs - Dare To Dream (feat. Graham Nash)
Mike Campbell is harmonised by none other than Graham Nash on this gorgeously contemplative new Dirty Knobs tune. With the sort of rootsy flecks and sharp yet sunkissed Americana you’d expect from a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers alumnus (who was also a bandmate of Petty’s in countrified rockers Mudcrutch), it made us think of those guys’ influence on today’s non-purist southern contingent – Blackberry Smoke, The Cadillac Three, Tyler Bryant, Larkin Poe, Robert Jon & The Wreck etc etc. Campbell’s next album, Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits, comes out in June.
Fuzzrider - Dusk Till Dawn
Kicking off with a creeping bass riff and drum part that could come from post-rockers Slint or Tortoise, Dusk Till Dawn – the new single from Greek heavy blues merchants Fuzzrider – slowly turns into the slowest of ZZ Top-meets-Foghat jams, with a video that contains motorbikes a-plenty and a clearly dangerous femme fatale. We suspect it's a tribute to the Robert Rodriguez movie From Dusk Till Dawn and that scene with Salma Hayek, but what do we know? Either way, it oozes with mystery, darkness and seduction, so where not complaining. The band's self-titled debut album was released last year.
Mount Rushka - Weathervane
Mount Rushka say Weathervane was inspired by Alabama Shakes, Nuno Bettencourt, The Beatles and Alice In Chains, and for once this sounds like a reasonably realistic description rather than unrealistic hyperbole. You can hear Nuno in that stuttering opening riff and the Shakes on the song structure, and you'll find The Fabs and Alice in some of the melodic shifts elsewhere. It's all very slickly put together, and there's more of the same sort of thing on the band's new EP What's This Time For?, which is available via your local streaming platform now. Are Mount Rushka the third greatest Canadian band with "Rush" in their name? It's possible Alex Lifeson knows, for he was born in Fernie, the small city in British Columbia that Mount Rushka call home.
