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 BIO | ALBUM REVIEWS | LIVE REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS |
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| Album Reviews |
 NEBULA - ATOMIC RITUAL Zero Magazine by Mark Whittaker These guys are so badass you don't even know. Well... maybe you do. Regardless, if you don't know who or what Nebula is then this is a great album to introduce yourself with. Atomic Ritual takes the fuzzy riff rawk aura then takes off in some suped up spacecraft with enough clearlight and testicles to make Buzz Aldren say "damn!" Nebula's past offerings are good, I mean really good, but this new one sounds really confident, tight, yet comfortable enough to stop and try to not be the astral projecting embodiment of Fu Manchu (which frontman Eddie and drummer Ruben used to be in back in the day). Each song feels as if it were crafted under much stoned duress and then walked through with new eyes, maybe due to new bassist Simon, because a new perspective always pisses you off at first but then when you actually get down to brass tacks you go "oh yeah... you're right." And Nebula gets it right this time. For sure. The best part is, amongst the solar train ride to sunsets unknown, is the totally positive energy this CD gives off. I mean, lines like "Paradise is now!" makes even the worse trip seem OK. back to album reviews |
NEBULA - ATOMIC RITUAL Bully Magazine by Ken Wohlrob Nebula's reputation on the underground rock scene was set in stone after their first two EPs. After that however, they often fell short of expectations. Longtime members Eddie Glass and Ruben Romano helped power Fu Manchu through some of their finest years. When the Fu factions eventually split up - Glass and Romano choosing a more psych-blues vein - Nebula seemed to have all the makings of a soon-to-be legendary band. Glass is a hell of a guitarist and Romano is one of the best children of Bonham to emerge on the rock scene. It was because of their well-known talent that Nebula was always hailed as one of the heavyweights of underground rock. But they always seemed to just miss the mark. I watched them literally get knocked off the stage by the infamous Zen Guerilla at CBGB's. Their albums have always been a hit or miss affair, with their older EPs outshining their Sub Pop albums. A glimpse of hope was seen on their last effort for Meteor City - Dos EPs - which featured older material plus three new songs that proved the guys still had some promise. Which brings us to their new release, Atomic Ritual. Finally, Nebula was able to capture the infamous sound everyone expected from them. The music has balls to it, that incredible swagger of a power trio cutting heads. The title track, "So It Goes," and "Strange Human" all knock you down with Romano's pounding beats and Glass' blistering guitar work. Undoubtedly, the credit for this sudden return to form goes to Chris Goss. Who? Alright, quick history lesson. Chris Goss lead the Masters of Reality, a short lived Cream-meets-Zeppelin power trio from Rick Rubin's early '90s "I'll make every album sound like Back in Black" phase. After a few grossly ignored albums, they eventually dissolved. Goss meanwhile ended up producing several influential albums for the founders of stoner rock, Kyuss. In fact, the style that would be so well emulated by every pothead with a Gibson SG was really created by Goss who knew how to get that perfectly fuzzy guitar sound. On Atomic Ritual, Goss helps Nebula to rediscover their blues-tinged psych-rock that is still undeniably heavy. "Out of Your Head" and "The Way To Venus" serve as perfect examples of Goss' ability to help them focus on their Cream-meets-Sabbath roots. That's not to take credit away from Glass, Romano, and bassist Simon Moon. These guys have the talent; they just had a hard time playing up to their level. Here you can finally hear the playing chops and aggressiveness that had been all but lost since the Sun Creature EP. Goss also helps them to bring back the punk side of stoner rock - the MC5 and the Stooges - that often was smothered by the homages to Zeppelin and Sabbath. In addition, the psych-rock atmosphere and blues dynamics are better showcased on songs such as "Paradise Engineer" and "Carpe Diem" to create a more well-balanced album. It's actually nice to hear a band live up to their potential, as opposed to releasing another slab of crap like so many other acts. back to album reviews |
NEBULA - ATOMIC RITUAL The Village Voice by Dave Queen Nebula's Atomic Ritual is the best album yet from the second-greatest-ever band from Pasadena, and its best song, "So It Goes," is better than "Don't Fear the Reaper" times Devo's "Beautiful World." The opening sort of updates that old Jim Carroll song into "Strokes Who Died," with repetitive piano banging over rapid and relentless 1/4 pounding. A "descending pick slide" (that reverse rocket-launch sound) covers two bars until the wah whooshes, right at the end. Like if "Eric's Trip" by Sonic Youth had all the noises painstakingly geometricized, then winched into place, or pushed on rollers by spirited-but-misguided Easter Islanders before they realized that they'd deforested the island and had to resort to cannibalism. The lyrics in "So It Goes" are tightly formatted, with key phrases appearing in different parts of the lines as the song progresses. The first verse alludes either to Picnic at Hanging Rock or the latest local-paper school outing gone horribly wrong. The second is more rigorous in its mortis. "Asphyxiation/His final rock and roll." These verses complement the title and chorus's tone of resigned fatalism. "Everything's beautiful, and nothing hurts/When your time comes, nothing hurts/Everything's beautiful, and so it goes." The Modern Lovers' "She Cracked," as desultorily chuckled over by the ambulance staff. Then the next verse stiffens spasmodically and reaches out from under the sheet to sink its still-growing nails into your flesh. "In the fetal position/He was frozen stiff/He was lyin' by the train track/Yeah, the bum was dead." Hilarious if somewhat brusque — like a drunk and abusive Steely Dan, right? Until the next line. "His feet were blue/Someone had stolen his boots/So it goes/So it goes." The never ending degradation that denies souls' dignity even in death, and then the "everything's beautiful" chorus repeats except with the omniscient shrug inverted into its frozen-void opposite while maintaining the uniformity of delivery. (Eddie Glass sounds more like Ace "DeLorean Tremens" Frehley now than like Bob Mould.) Lasciate ogni speranza (like it should've said on the entrance of the Brit hospital I went to this morning to get a piece of ice pick removed from my left orbital that they'd stupidly left in there. Passed the waiting-room time by making up lyrics to the tune of this song about fellow patients. "He had lacerations all over his face/covered with blood all over the place/He rocked back and forth and whined like a dog/such a drama queen, such a drama queen"). Then there's a guitar solo explicitly linking aforementioned glue-bag Frehley with a post-satori James Williamson, after which the same unison note is repeated 48 times and the song stops dead. The next best song on Atomic Ritual instructs "get out of your head"; the other songs (especially the amicable antinomianism of "The Beast") have a similar Van Morrison-type uplift rendered not only necessary but life-transformative after the previously mentioned, and the overall sound is Kiss Alive without crowd noises (which I'm sure doesn't exist anywhere and never did): i.e., utter perfection. An essential release. back to album reviews |
