The Age of Absurdity
| The Age of Absurdity | |
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| Studio album by Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons |
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Publication |
January 26, 2018 |
| Label (s) | Nuclear Blast |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
41 min 8 s |
| occupation |
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Romesh Dodangoda |
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Studio (s) |
Long Wave Recording Studio, Cardiff |
The Age of Absurdity is the first studio album of the Welsh hard rock - band Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons . The album was released on January 26, 2018 via Nuclear Blast .
Emergence
The album was recorded with producer Romesh Dodangoda in August 2017 . Dodangoda had previously worked with Phil Campbell's former band Motörhead and Neil Starr's former band Attack! Attack! worked together. Dodangoda still worked as a sound engineer and mixer on this album . Before that there were long discussions in the band about where and with whom the album should be recorded. In the end, the musicians choose Dodangoda because his studio is close to the band. The recordings took place in the Long Wave Recording Studio in Cardiff and partly in the Rockfield Studios, where Queen recorded the song Bohemian Rhapsody .
The mastering was done by Christian Wright at Abbey Road Studios in London . In addition to eleven original compositions, the band recorded a cover version of the song Silver Machine by the band Hawkwind . Its singer Dave Brock contributed background vocals. The album cover was created by Matt Riste. For the songs Silver Machine , Welcome to Hell and Dark Days were music videos rotated. On April 21, 2018, the band released the song Silver Machine as a 7 "single as part of Record Store Day . Previously, the song was only heard as a bonus track on the limited version of the album.
background
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The album title The Age of Absurdity ( English : The Age of Absurdity ) is for singer Neil Starr a good description of the crazy state of the world. In his texts he expresses what is happening around him and what feelings these things trigger in him. For Starr, the album title refers to the development of the last twenty years.
“You see so many crazy things becoming commonplace. What scares me the most is that it leaves you more and more cold because you actually only have negative expectations. "
Dark Days deals with the fear of the world as it is now. The song Freak Show is about an evening in Switzerland when the owner of a bar offered the musicians free drinks after midnight and a return trip to the hotel at six in the morning. The song Dropping the Needle, on the other hand, deals with the love of music, especially records . The stylus mentioned in the title refers to the stylus of the pickup .
The album cover created by Matt Riste and the images in the booklet relate to the respective song. The images were hand drawn by Riste and were inspired by circus and freak show posters from the 1930s .
reception
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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For Thomas Kupfer from the German magazine Rock Hard, "the Bastard Sons convey a great no-shit attitude in some songs and, in addition to their own identity, score with stylistic cross-references to the greats of the genre". Copper awarded eight out of ten points. Moritz Grütz from the online magazine Metal1.info stated that The Age of Absurdity offered a "pleasantly relaxed, yes, even quite casual modern rock album that may not reinvent the wheel, but is thoroughly fun". Grütz also awarded eight out of ten points.
Andreas Himmelstein from the German magazine Deaf Forever was more critical, for whom "it is no fun to give a well-deserved warrior like Phil Campbell a rather mediocre job reference". Neil Starr's vocals "would actually be quite good, but also a bit arbitrary". In addition to “tracks in Motörhead style” there would also be “decent, contemporary all-world rockers”, for which Himmelstein awarded seven out of ten points. For Marek Protzak from the online magazine Metal.de “the songs are easy on the ear, but not under the skin” and described Neil Starr's vocals as “interchangeable”. Protzak rated the album six out of ten.
The album debuted at number 53 in the British, number 36 in Germany, number 60 in the Austrian and number 29 in the Swiss album charts. The Age of Absurdity won the Best Debut Album category at the 2018 Metal Hammer Awards .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Frank Thiessies: Family ties . In: Metal Hammer , February 2018, page 51
- ↑ a b c Mark Dean: Interview: Neil Starr of PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS. Anti Hero Magazine, accessed March 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Milchrahm : PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS: announce new single! Stormbringer.at, accessed on March 9, 2018 .
- ↑ Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons in the German charts. GfK Entertainment, accessed on February 16, 2018 .
- ^ Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons in the Swiss hit parade. Hung Medien, accessed February 16, 2018 .
- ^ Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons in the Austrian charts. Hung Medien, accessed February 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons in the British charts. The Official Charts Company, accessed February 16, 2018 .
- ^ Thomas Kupfer: Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons - The Age of Absurdity. Rock Hard, accessed October 21, 2018 .
- ^ Moritz Grütz: Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons - The Age of Absurdity. Metal1.info, accessed March 12, 2018 .
- ^ Andreas Himmelstein: Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons - The Age of Absurdity . In: Deaf Forever , No. 22, p. 110
- ↑ Marek Protzak: Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons - The Age of Absurdity. Metal.de, accessed on March 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Freya Schulte-Wintrop: 10 years of METAL HAMMER AWARDS: The “toughest” awards for the best rock and metal musicians in 2018. Axel Springer SE , accessed on September 15, 2018 .
Web links
- The Age of Absurdity on Allmusic (English)