Warlocks - Phoenix Album

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 20 / 4 / 2003

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Wrapped in a plastic sleeve with a set of knives imprinted into the plastic. ‘Phoenix’ is the new album of the much hyped the Warlocks, I state the word "album" because they also have a vinyl EP and CD called ‘Phoenix’ out too, which features different tracks. Phoenix is their second album to date. To confuse the matter further their U.S. releases have different tracks to the UK releases of the same name. While I discovered the Raveonettes in February, all my friends were already raving about the Warlocks. This is my favourite current album but it did take a few plays to get it. The head Warlock is a guy called Bobby Hecksher, who was previously in The Brian Jonestown Massacre who were a fabulous band. The Warlocks are a 7 piece with three guitarists, a keyboardist / tambourine player, bassist and 2 drummers. Live on stage they look messy and their stage show, which I saw recently in London, very much has the style of a Goth celebration. Musically they have been described to me as a much darker Black Rebel Motorcycle Club , which is a fair description because Bobby’s vocal at times sounds very BRMC. At their gig I couldn't make out the vocals at all due to the loudness of the band. On record, it works much better. A lot of the time it is too trendy for it’s own good, but it is a cool little record. At it’s best it is somewhere between a very progressive Velvet Underground and a stoner version of Spiritualized or Spaceman 3. What works in it’s favour is almost every track has a killer of a guitar line to die for. It does rock hard and it is very psychedelic in a dark way. Vocally it is distorted with a Spiritualized style groove. The main lyrical theme is drugs and how cool they are ,which they are not. Yes, kids take lots of drugs and you too can look like a Warlock. They may not have the sexy look you aspire too, but there is enough killer riffs here too win you over. Definitely a name to watch !

Track Listing:-

1 Shake The Dope Out
2 Hurricane Heart Attack
3 Inside Outside
4 Isolation
5 Cosmic Letdown
6 Red Rooster
7 Baby Blue
8 The Dope Feels Good
9 Stickman Blues
10 Oh Shade

Band Links:-

http://www.thewarlocks.com/news.php
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Warlocks/243071439036274
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Warlocks
https://www.songkick.com/artists/32445-warlocks

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