Review of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Specter at the Feast

Leah Shapiro Best USA Woman Drummer Tom Tom Magazine Music Magazine for Women
No one can deny that when Black Rebel Motorcycle Club releases an album, the same “band that broke the floor” (a reference to the now infamous mid-show cancelation of their 2003 Leeds City Hall show by officials for fear of destroying the 150 year-old floor boards with their raucous energy) will bring their West Coast alleyway swagger and crunchy, fuzz-box bass to the table. And the band’s seventh album release Specter At The Feast continues the same moody, eclectic mix of bad boy laments and boot stomping rock rhythms ala Jesus and Mary Chain.

“The crime is never what you steal/ it’s what you leave behind,” singer Peter Hayes croons on the opening track “Fire Walker,” a haunting parade of both heavy, crackling electric guitar and steady beats executed by ex-Ravontette’s touring drummer Leah Shapiro (who joined the band in 2008). The album’s finale “Lose Yourself,” caps a solid effort with a symphonic cathedral of sound, reminding us that BRMC will revel in evocative rock with sexy confidence and grimy truths.

Listen to this: while slipping on a leather jacket and doing your best Marlon Brando impression from The Wild Ones.

— Matthew D’Abate

Specter at the Feast was released by Abstract Dragon in March 2013.

Photo by Annie Frame for Tom Tom Magazine

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