For every rush of adrenaline there’s the eventual lull. For each euphoric high there’s the comedown to follow. Thunderheads (Aqualamb Recordings) — the debut record of LaMacchia — plays like the 3am winding down of a night of excess. Thrills and sensual desires wedded to a shadow of sadness and introspection.
The albums that Grunge legend Jerry Cantrell has released across his solo career and his mothership Alice In Chains always seemed to have an intertwined relationship. 1998’s Boggy Depot and 2002’s Degradation Trip seemingly attempted to fill the void left in the wake of Alice’s hiatus and Layne Staley’s passing while Alice’s comeback albums with William DuVall on board essentially felt like Cantrell albums with extra riffs. This symbiosis turned cyclical with 2018’s Rainier Fog, which shared quite a bit of noticeable commonality with Boggy Depot . So where does Brighten, his first proper solo album in nineteen years, fit into this dichotomy?
All three of Geezer Butler’s 1990s solo albums apart from Black Sabbath reunions are getting reissued. Plastic Planet (1995), Black Science (1997), and Ohmwork (2005) will be avaialble on vinyl for the first time ever, with both CD and LP using newly updated cover artwork and all will be available via BMG on October 30. Plastic Planet featured Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell, with its incendiary single “Drive Boy Shooting,” and is considered a highlight of that time. In an upcoming interview with Ghost Cult, Bell remarked that he would “jump at the chance” to make another GZR album. That interview is coming soon. Purchase the albums at the link below.