The Apocalypse Blues Revival released their self-titled album last Friday with their psychedelic video, “Waltz of the Antichrist/Impure.”
The 9-track album loosely follows an autobiographical narrative centered around a protagonist on the left-hand path, embracing dark magic rituals that begins on “Waltz of the Antichrist/Impure,” and later changes his ways to ascension concluding with the seven minute-plus track, “A Gecko (Part 2) – The Endless Possibility of Water (666 Reprise),” that stretches towards a fiery musical catharsis.
Drummer, Shannon Larkin stated, “When you listen to the album, I’d love it if you actually took a trip with us through this dark abyss and came out of it 45 minutes later with a new perspective.”
The Apocalypse Blues Revival materialized in 2020. For nearly a decade, drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola (both from Godsmack) threw down at biker bars, blues haunts, and dyed-in-the-wool venues around the country in an RV with bassist Brian Carpenter.
Under the name of The Apocalypse Blues Revue originally, they churned out two albums, The Apocalypse Blues Revue [2016], The Shape of Blues To Come [2018], that generated nearly 1 million total streams. During late 2019, Shannon welcomed lifelong friend and lead singer, Shane Hall into the fold. A few years ago, Shane held down vocals in a wild funk outfit alongside Shannon and Tony, sparking a flame fanned to its fullest potential in The Apocalypse Blues Revival.
The quartet casted an unbreakable spell on their new self-titled independent full-length debut, The Apocalypse Blues Revival. For Shannon, this idea of the new album initially blossomed on a tour bus during a freezing January in Europe. Slowly but surely, the songs came to life in order, sketched out on hotel notepads and written wherever possible. Processing the loss of his sister, he translated this pain into the story.
“It’s a completely different band,” affirms Shannon. “We’ve shifted into more of a psychedelic rock sound. My big vision was to simply mix the influences from my two favorite classic rock artists—David Bowie and Pink Floyd—with my favorite blues artists: Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and B.B. King. The foundation is always blues. That’s how I approach the drums, but we’re veering off into more eclectic areas and rock. As the guy who writes the lyrics and melodies, I’m limited to my singer. Shane has taken all of those limitations away. He’s such an extension of me that it’s no wonder we’ve been best friends for twenty years.”
