The Black-Eyed Snakes - Rise Up

Rise Up! features hard-pounding, heavily distorted, double-drummer-driven blues-punk that's definitely not intended for purists, as The Black-eyed Snakes' noisy 46-second cover version of Swans' "Red Sheet" and their scraping, screaming sonic meltdown in the middle of the almost nine-minute "No Good Daddy" amply demonstrate. Thankfully, there's less self-conscious irony and posturing here than on the group's debut album, although the band has a running joke of giving itself and everyone else connected with this album down-home nicknames such as "Chicken-Bone" and "Big House." Alan Sparhawk's heavily filtered vocals sound appropriately vigorous and unhinged; they give the band a contemporary feel while fitting well with their relatively abrasive sound. Read More