Vinyl Epitaph

Any fan of the straightforward rock & roll from the nineties will have a ball with Vinyl Epitaph's album The Oxygen Guide. The band name is a little silly at first and the song titles seemed to be titles of novel chapters about some nightmarish journey out west. There was little information about the band on the internet. All there was to go on, was the band name, a list of tracks, and, of course, the music.

The band seems just decent at first, kicking the album off with a generic sounding tune, "Severed Head." But their talent slowly surfaced with the drummer's frequent snare rushes and the psychedelic guitar pick-up scratching ultimately ending with some satisfying solos. "Mohawk Blues" steps the tempo up a notch and the band starts to sound a little more authentic. The volume and pitch of the singer reminds you of Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder until the next song.

"Crapshoot Rapture" continues the band's hard hitting aggression with some good-old curdling screams by the vocalist, now sounding a bit like Glassjaw's frontman Daryl Palumbo. What Vinyl Epitaph produces is a sort of fusion between the hardcore and the progressive rock & roll of the nineties, and it always rocks. It's a cool balance between rocking hard without going overboard, losing the tempo to insane drum spasms, and getting too experimental for their own good. Rather, the album just rocks from start to finish. Even when the rhythm slows a bit for songs like "Antique Snakes," it doesn't go sissy on you; instead blasting out a funky beat with superb guitar solos.

The musicians do not seem too interested in the more expected composure of songs you generally find. Which is good, because why should all songs go verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, chorus, etc? The lyrics are of positive quality, lacking the self-loathing negativity within the lyrics of contemporary rock. It’s refreshing to hear a band rejecting that path. As my favorite song from the album puts it, "sorrow is no place to hide." Damn straight.

My personal favorite and final song on the album, "Strange Beast," is the epitome of Vinyl Epitaph's sound. Hopefully, the trippy guitar sounds seamlessly blended with their fast-paced and funky guitar riffs are a taste of more excellence to come from this band. The album is not long, with seven songs ranging only two to three minutes each. On the positive side though, you can hear the whole album in one short car ride. This is good background music for your party and I'm anticipating a pretty damn good live show too. So next time you're at a computer, such as now, check out Vinyl Epitaph. - Magazine33

Enter the Downtown Fredericksburg nightlife scene, where local bands vie for power and glory. Vinyl Epitaph is certainly one of the scene’s most promising bands, debuting their first EP on Saturday, March 27th at Fatty J’s. It was a packed house, a night full of energy, excitement, and some good-old-fashioned heavy rock......(cont.@Magazine33.com) - Magazine33