Death Valley Girls - Darkness Rains (2018)

Death Valley Girls, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Bonnie Bloomgarden and guitarist Larry Schemel channel a modern spin on Funhouse's sonic exorcisms, ZZ Top's desert-blasted riffage, and Sabbath's occult menace. On their third album Darkness Rains, Death Valley Girls churn out the hypercharged scuzzy rock every generation yearns for, but there is a more subversive force percolating beneath the surface that imbues the band with an exhilarating cosmic energy. Album opener More Dead is a rousing wake up call, with a hypnotic guitar riff and an intoxicating blown-out solo underscoring Bloomgarden's proclamation that you're 'more dead than alive.' The pace builds with (One Less Thing) Before I Die , a distillate of Detroit's proto-punk sound. At track three, Death Valley Girls hit their stride with Disaster (Is What We're After), a rager that takes the most boisterous moments off Exile On Main Street and injects it with Zeppelin's devil's-note blues. Darkness Rains retains its intoxicating convocations across ten tracks, climaxing with the hypnotic guitar drones and cult-like chants of 'TV In Jail On Mars.' 'Death Valley Girls are a gift to the world.' - Iggy Pop