The 9C Files: Magic Pie’s Maestro

Gather round, ye men and women of the heavy. For I have news to share, of the mighty return of Magic Pie, and the veritable cornucopia of virtues that lay within the band’s first album in six years, the masterful Maestro, filled to the brim with incredible guitars, catchy anthemic melodies and soaring choruses and…and…did I mention how great the guitar playing is? Because holy bovine, my friends, the guitar playing is majestic. Too often we turn to extreme music to mirror and reflect how we feel. Well, right now I need music that lifts me up, makes me cheer and rock and smile and feel like there is joy in the construction of a righteous racket. And my friends, my stalwart brethren in metal arms, these Norwegians do just that.

ChrisNovember 23, 2025November 12, 2025Leave a comment

The 9C Files, Vinyl

The 9C Files: Bask’s The Turning

Sometimes I lay in bed at night, struggling to figure out what to listen to in order to calm my brain and find some peace. I have it in my head, the way the guitars sound, the kinds of riffs and sinewy leads I want. Slow, rolling, but catchy and propulsive. It’s more than stoner rock; when everyone and their brother is doing it, I crave something deeper, something that locks into my wavelength. I didn’t know Bask before randomly grabbing the promo from the pile, but now, having heard The Turning, not only do I know them, but I know what I was searching for on all of those sleepless nights.

Something to ring the spirit bell inside. A chord that resonates deep in the chasm of my chest. Also, some banjo and gnarly fuzz.

ChrisNovember 16, 2025November 16, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

The 9C Files: Howling Giant’s Crucible & Ruin

Expectation is such a heavy thing when it comes to your favorite bands. You want to support them, to give them room to stretch and create and follow their personal muse (muses? It’s early in the morning) wherever it will take them. But you know deep down there’s a small kernel of…let’s call it yearning…for them to do exactly what YOU want. I can’t help it, you can’t help it, best to just acknowledge the bias and move on. Especially when said favorite band knocks it out of the park by doing both, as Howling Giant have done with their third full-length Crucible & Ruin. An expanded lineup brings new complexities into their prog/psych/stoner rock assault, and the songwriting gets even sharper, aided by a brighter, soaring production that highlights the best aspects of the band.

ChrisNovember 9, 2025Leave a comment

CD, Vinyl

Mahogany Rush: Child Of The Novelty (1974)

Out of the thousands (probably millions) of guitarists influenced by Jimi Hendrix, it’s a rare player that actually embodies Hendrix’s particular slippery vibe. Stevie Ray Vaughn was definitely one of them, and for my money Uli Jon Roth hits the same psychedelic fire highs. Frank Marino is another, and his early work with Mahogany Rush shows off just how indebted this muscular trio out of Canada was to that classic sound. I was unfamiliar with Marino and the band, but Child Of The Novelty hooked me at my local used shop with that killer cover art, so I took a chance on it. Slinky and funky, this is a killer early hard rock album that’s going to sit comfortably in my collection when I want to groove out to something like but not quite Hendrix.

ChrisSeptember 3, 2025Leave a comment

Blind Golem: A Dream of Fantasy (2021)

I said I’d been listening to a lot of recent Uriah Heep lately, but I’ve also been listening to a lot of reasonable facsimiles of Uriah Heep, too. Specifically Blind Golem, a band out of Italy who takes the classic hard rock band’s influence to heart so much so that Ken Hensley is not only featured on the album, but prominently displayed on the fantasy driven album art, to boot. A Dream of Fantasy takes the driving guitars, heavy organ, and proto-metal prog thunder and gives it a bit of that modern European polish for an effective tribute that also manages to make a solid statement on its own.

ChrisAugust 14, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Uriah Heep: Salisbury (1971)

Despite my love and recent purchases of the later, most current iteration of Uriah Heep – Living the Dream and Into the Wild are killer modern rock records – there’s nothing like that classic, early 70s incarnation. Like their debut, sophomore record Salisbury has a different track order depending on if you have the UK or the US version, and while the original UK would have been a better selection (you can’t beat opening with “Bird of Prey”), you can’t throw a rock in a record store here without hitting at least three copies of the US pressing for under $8. On the upside, wicked cover art, though.

ChrisAugust 11, 2025Leave a comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: hard rock