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The Black Angels

Passover
Cassette White $12
CD $12
2LP Black $32
2LP Black Grease $35
2LP Blue Yellow Multicolor $35
Digital Download $9.99
  • The band’s debut masterpiece originally released in 2006
  • Vinyl pressed at RTI
  • Double LP housed in a gatefold jacket
  • Two Special Color Vinyl Editions:
    – Pressed on Clear Black Swirl Wax (Black Grease)
    – Pressed on Jade Blue & Mustard Yellow

Description


These are fighting times, people. We are surrounded by grit, spit, and bloody war, but in the distance moving forward are The Black Angels. Passover, the Angels' debut album, speaks of real-life horrors, death, and destruction with doses of love, sex, and healing. Don’t lose track; these are caring times as well.

Formed in 2004 and hailing from the mescaline-infused outskirts of Austin, Texas, this gang of musical misfits has been on the road nonstop since their birth, performing at such renowned venues as Sin-e, Middle East, and Spaceland. In early 2006, the band’s self-titled debut EP was dubbed highly recommended in Spin Magazine while receiving heavy radio airplay on such influential stations as KEXP and BBC Radio 1 by Zane Lowe.

Passover showcases a band on the rise. Spiraling upwards to the skies with the enemy straight on their trail, “The Sniper At The Gates Of Heaven” sees The Black Angels reaching high and stretching out with trance-inducing guitar lines from Christian Bland, Nate Ryan’s filthy medical dumpster bass, and the grizzly preacher vox of lead shaman Alex Maas. “Black Grease” is a bluesy monster full of swagger propelled by the primitive beat of drummer Stephanie Bailey and the mourning drone of organist Jennifer Raines.

Reflecting and questioning the intergenerational psychosis of American social life that surrounds us, The Black Angels put forth their answers in song with Passover. It’s a “Call To Arms” for those ready to join the good fight, a rock ‘n’ roll salvation during the times we need it the most. As Maas bellows on “Young Man Dead,” “Fire for the hills, pick up speed, and let’s go…”

Artist Bio

The best music reflects a wide-screen view of the world back at us, helping distill the universal into something far more personal. Since forming in Austin, TX in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock that does exactly that. 

Taking their name from the classic Velvet Underground tune “The Black Angel’s Death Song,” these Angels are far more than classic revisionists with extensive record collections. This is heavy-duty psychedelic rock with an incessant primitive beat that echoes the spirit of the 13th Floor Elevators, Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, and Arthur Lee. Their densely-layered songs feature acid-infused finger-painting guitar and the melodic incantations of lead singer Alex Maas navigating guitar/bass labyrinths. The music is martial-drummed into apocalyptic bliss by garage-punk goddess Stephanie Bailey. The Black Angels ring real and rugged like a crimson full moonlit night. “The Velvet Underground song ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ – that’s what every Black Angels album has been about,” says Maas. “You can’t work out your struggles unless you bring them to the forefront and think about them. If we can all think about them, maybe we can help save ourselves.”

Preview Tracklist

  • 1 Young Men Dead
    5:32
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  • 2 The First Vietnamese War
    3:30
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  • 3 The Sniper At The Gates Of Heaven
    4:17
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  • 4 The Prodigal Sun
    4:23
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  • 5 Black Grease
    4:33
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  • 6 Manipulation
    5:50
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  • 7 Empire
    5:35
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  • 8 Better Off Alone
    3:03
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  • 9 Bloodhounds On My Trail
    3:59
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  • 10 Call To Arms
    18:06
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