The Apocalypse Blues Revue – The Apocalypse Blues Revue

The Apocalypse Blues Revue was founded by drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola from rock band Godsmack.  They’re joined by Ray “Rafer John” Cerbone on vocals and Brian Carpenter on bass.  Shannon Larkin has this to say about the music…”A little heavier, a little darker, and has some punk rock attitude in the lyrics.  We wanted to make something deep that will provoke thought. It had to be evil though. We’re not trying to make it happy, it’s called the blues for a reason.”

If that sounds a bit complicated, think of The Doors – there are definite similarities in the music and vocals at times, and The Doors were heavily influenced by the blues too.  The guys are clearly fans of The Doors judging by their inclusion of a cover of “Music’s Over.”  The music is definitely on the heavier end of the blues spectrum, but it’s clearly still the blues.  The songs are all absolutely superb – it’s an album you can listen to again and again – in fact it’s been on repeat pretty much constantly the last few days here.

The first single to be released is “Devil plays a strat” – check out the video.

This really is a superb album – really good rocky blues with great guitar work throughout, and with some solos that help showcase the abilities of Tony Rombola.  The vocals are excellent – there’s definitely something about them that reminds me of Jim Morrison which is no bad thing, and there’s plenty of variety in the vocals which combined with the musical variety means the album never gets even slightly boring.  I really can’t pick a favourite track – every song is so good that it’s too tough a choice.

This album is highly recommended.

Track listing:

1. Evil is as evil does
2. Junkie hell
3. Devil plays a strat
4. I think not
5. Whiskey in my coffee
6. The tower
7. Crossed over
8. Blues are fallin’ from the sky
9. Work in progress
10. The devil in me
11. Blue cross
12. Music’s over (bonus track)