Description

Taking their cues from the blues-rock and Southern rock movements of the 1970s, Los Angeles-based Year Long Disaster began with Daniel Davies, the group's lead singer and guitarist. While struggling with a drug habit in April 2003, he met Rich Mullins, bassist and founding member of Karma to Burn. Mullins was himself battling addiction — after leaving Karma to Burn to play with the Dallas band Speedealer. When Mullins and Davies first met they became fast friends, and within a month of knowing each other, they both went into rehab. After a month of initial treatment and six months in a sober-living halfway house, the duo completed the program in December 2003. In November 2004 the two invited Third Eye blind drummer Brad Hargreaves to an informal jam session. Hargreaves agreed to join them — the trio bonded quickly and formed Year Long Disaster shortly afterward. Their second album, Black Magic All Mysteries Revealed, was released in 2010. With ‘Black Magic All Mysteries Revealed’ the band has actually improved and the sound is darker and heavier than their self-titled debut. The sound is still primarily blues-influenced hard rock, but this go around; the atmosphere feels different; less Led Zeppelin and more Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Black Sabbath. The songs here feel less rushed, giving them the relaxed and confident demeanour of a band that’s starting to come into their own as songwriters. Rather than forcing the issues, songs like “Major Arcana” and “Show Me Your Teeth” are content to sit back in the groove and coolly let the rock happen, drawing the listener with the allure of a solid riff instead of beating them over the head with it. And while the riffs on Black Magic might not be particularly original, Year Long Disaster have made an important first step by coming into the right attitude, giving off the kind of distant cool that goes a long way in the realm of hard rock. All in all, Black Magic; All Mysteries Revealed is a very promising album for Year Long Disaster, giving us a glimpse of a band that has matured, showing no signs of the complacency that can sometimes ruin a band's second record. With plenty of room for innovation, and what seems like a desire to evolve, Year Long Disaster ise proving themselves to be a band on the rise. Track listing: 1. Black Magic-intro 2. Show Me Your Teeth 3. Love Like Blood 4. Stranger in My Room 5. Sparrow Hill 6. Seven of Swords 7. She Told Us All 8. Venus at the Crossroads 9. Major Arcana 10. Foggy Bottom 11. Cyclone