Article By: Leanne Ridgeway
After almost two years of working on their third album, Buffalo, New York‘s heavy blues and stoner rocking SPACELORD is dropping new tracks to make sure all eyes are on them.
Today (Friday, August 13th, 2021) sees the release of “Midnight Shadow,” a stomping revivalist jam steeped in apocalyptic imagery. The single is backed by a B-side cover of the Hendrix classic “Spanish Castle Magic,” and is accompanied by an ominous music video directed by video artist H. Pattison. We have the premiere of this video streaming below for your eyes and ears today.
“Our early reviews would compare us to either 70s bands or 90s bands, and that perfectly describes our biggest influences,” said singer Ed Grabianowski. “Imagine Robert Plant traveled through time and joined Soundgarden, or Jerry Cantrell jammed with Black Sabbath. That’s always been our vibe.”
Shortly after forming SPACELORD in late 2016, they released a début EP ‘New Horrible Menace‘, which was quickly followed by their first full-length in the Fall of 2017. We reviewed that first ‘Spacelord‘ album, as well as their second, ‘Indecipher‘ [review], which launched in November 2018 via Kozmik Artifactz.
SPACELORD made the Doom Charts with those first two albums and played both the Descendants of Crom Festival and the Music is Art Festival in 2019. When the pandemic hit, they were already undergoing changes, with the core songwriting team of Root and Grabianowski preparing to record as a duo. That turned into remote recording sessions and heavier use of acoustic guitars.
Tracklist:
A-side: Midnight Shadow (Root/ Grabianowski)
B-side: Spanish Castle Magic (Hendrix)
“‘Midnight Shadow’ is the first song from what was originally going to be an acoustic EP,” said Grabianowski. “That gives it a different feel and we think it works as a way of saying, ‘Spacelord can do different things in different ways, but we’re still Spacelord.‘”
For their cover of a psychedelic standard, SPACELORD approached “Spanish Castle Magic” from different angles.
“I’ve been a Hendrix fan for as long as I can remember,” said guitarist Richard Root. “His music has been part of the soundtrack of my life and I always refer to him when I need to center myself. The way Jimi lays it all out on the guitar; the courage, which I think applies even today, the power, his ability to allow his playing to come from a very deep, inner location which most of us don’t even know exists within ourselves. Jimi was mining that existential gold and, maybe the best part, the product of that revealed an old, old soul whose nature was profoundly kind.”
“I wanted to try a different rhythm from the original, and ended up with something that kind of sounds like Ginger Baker taking on Hendrix,” said Grabianowski, who plays drums on several new tracks in addition to his usual vocal duties. “For the vocals, it took me a few tries before I realized that Jimi’s foundation as a vocalist was soul singers like Garnet Mimms or Wilson Pickett. It’s amazing just trying to channel even a little slice of that energy.”
SPACELORD‘s third full-length album will be released in November 2021.
SPACELORD:
Ed Grabianowski – Vocals, Drums
Richard Root – Guitars, Bass, Production
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