{"id":96818,"date":"2022-10-21T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T23:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=96818"},"modified":"2022-11-23T12:01:11","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T12:01:11","slug":"album-review-ruby-the-hatchet-fear-is-a-cruel-master","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-ruby-the-hatchet-fear-is-a-cruel-master\/","title":{"rendered":"RUBY THE HATCHET – Fear Is A Cruel Master (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUBY THE HATCHET
Fear Is A Cruel Master<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMagnetic Eye (2022)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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After a five year silence, grindhouse-a-go-go rock \u2018n\u2019 rollers Ruby The Hatchet are back in the saddle and ridin\u2019 outta Hell with another rollicking record. It\u2019s formulaic to an extent, it\u2019s archetypal, but it\u2019s good time rock music driven by lead single \u2018Thruster\u2019 which grooves along in typically ghoulish fashion. At times the song channels surf spookiness in some of the lead work but first and foremost it sizzles like a less macabre Lucifer.<\/p>\n

These New Jersey rockers have warmed my cold bones for a few years now. Their brand of catchy rock follows familiar themes as occult influences waft in like autumnal bonfire smoke and made all the more wistful by vocalist Jillian Taylor who has that steamy, haunting type of tone we\u2019ve become accustomed to with a glut of other acts who like to lace their poison with a bit of organ.<\/p>\n

Opener \u2018The Change\u2019 is a driving rocker with nifty guitar work, but it also boasts a more pensive segment too. Proof then that the band may be targeting a wider audience, but the support of the Hammond organ keeps the album psych-tinged as the rolling thunder of \u2018Deceiver\u2019 comes into play with fat riffage and stony, stoned percussion.<\/p>\n

Labelling Ruby The Hatchet as \u201cstoner\u201d is a tad unkind and restricting. After all, these guys have more of a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll sensibility and are happy to lean towards lighter shades of doom and psychedelia. \u2018Primitive Man\u2019 \u2013 featuring some killer guitar work \u2013 is awash with heavenly Hammond and luridly writhes on its bed of darkness, but it\u2019s still pretty much generic female-fronted fuzz rock we\u2019ve all been bombarded with over the last two decades. Thankfully, these guys write cool, misty melodies to keep the listener in tune.<\/p>\n

Other highs are the trudging \u2018Soothsayer\u2019, the subtle and bluesy \u20181,000 Years\u2019, and the serene \u2018Last Saga\u2019 where Taylor steps away from the mic and allows drummer Owen Stewart to bring us a soulful croon before both combine to provide a Blue \u00d6yster Cult-type of dreamy aesthetic. \u2018Amor Gravis\u2019 rounds things off with a jovial heap of rolling blubber delivered in classic 60s psych fashion; it\u2019s fat, dirty and hard, just how I like my rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n

Ruby The Hatchet remains steadfast in its quest for rock \u2018n\u2019 roll hierarchy, but whether they have enough to separate themselves from the crowd still remains to be seen. However, Fear Is A Cruel Master<\/em> is still a hip n\u2019 happenin\u2019 platter dripping with Jon Lord-esque organ and enough nostalgic resonance to keep you high in Hell.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUBY THE HATCHETFear Is A Cruel Master Magnetic Eye (2022)Rating: 8\/10 After a five year silence, grindhouse-a-go-go rock \u2018n\u2019 rollers Ruby The Hatchet are back in the saddle and ridin\u2019 outta Hell with another rollicking record. It\u2019s formulaic to an extent, it\u2019s archetypal, but it\u2019s good time rock music driven by lead single \u2018Thruster\u2019 which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-ruby-the-hatchet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96819,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96818\/revisions\/96819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}