Something good happened to me yesterday. Something Black Spiders related.
I know all the metal, wild cough mixture binges and non-stop sticking it to the man can sap your brain cells in their thousands, so let me remind you all of when I wrote about Black Spiders Sons of The North at the back-end of June. I stumbled across their entry on Pledge Music, seeking funding for their follow-up LP This Savage Land.
If you’re not familiar with the site/concept, basically bands and artistes get to pitch their ideas to you and ask you, the public, to buy into it and pay them up front for various agreed packages – for example I pledged for a signed vinyl copy of This Savage Land and tickets for a gig in Manchester in October. Marillion and Ginger Wildheart have previously used the same tactic really successfully, in fact Slash’s next project has been funded the same way too. I really recommend you check it out, there are some really intriguing things knocking around out there and when it’s done with wit and panache like Black Spiders have it’s just good to be part of.
Anyhoo, I got an email yesterday to tell me that the download copy of This Savage Land had, umm, landed and so it kept me company this morning on my daily commute. First impressions are great, that it is a fiercer, better played even, upgrade on Sons of The North and I can’t wait to thrash around in Manchester to the likes of ‘Knock You Out’ and ‘Raised by Wolves’. I’m also particularly taken with the borderline-AD&D spoken word outro on ‘Creatures’. In short I’m very happy, even without the lovely vinyl in my hand. One of my favourite things about Black Spiders is the fabulous artwork by their guitarist, Ozzy Lister, so to tide me over until next week, my son had a 10-minute go at reproducing it here:
238 Down (still).