In the summer of 2024, Absinthe Green’s ‘Give The Devil His Due’ was given some well deserved re-promotion. Although the track was two years at that point, it hadn’t really connected with a UK crowd. If it happened to be your first exposure to the Greek rock band, it certainly wasn’t a bad place to dive in. The track’s tonal shift from classic sounding doom into a driving hard rock riff showed off the band’s range of rock sounds very naturally, and although the featured vocal could’ve perhaps been a little sharper, the bulk of the track shared a great melodic feel.
Author Archives: Real Gone
BAD MARY – Better(er) Days EP
A lot can change in ten years. Unlike most DIY punk/alternative bands, though, for Bad Mary, issues with an ever shifting line up hasn’t ever been a factor. Since day one, the unity between vocalist Amanda Mac, her drumming dad Bill, bass playing husband Mike and guitarist David has been unquestionably strong. What has changed in that time, however, is the band’s recording budget and their collective musical skills. The 2024 Bad Mary sound much bigger and much fiercer than their younger selves. With that in mind, they chose not to mark a decades’ worth of work with a career spanning compilation, but to re-record some of the best tunes from their ‘Better Days’ debut disc.
FALOODA – Demo 2024 EP
Greek band Falooda bill themselves as “a noise funk dessert with rose syrup, vermicelli, milk and sweet basil seeds”. If that doesn’t quite make sense from an outsider’s perspective, then it’s with very good reason. This self-titled download – serving as the band’s first demo – is absolutely batshit bonkers. It’s a recording that presents a band absolutely throwing themselves head first into a world of distortion, mangling all manner of influences into the ugliest of shapes. It’s scary, and yet, it’s also fascinating.
RED EYE PARIAH – Tequila King EP
Northern Irish rockers Red Eye Pariah formed in April 2021, during the pandemic lockdown and amid an unsure world. Once things had settled, however, they wasted no time in building a reputation. Within a couple of years, they’d found a solid grass roots audience, and also gained praise and air time from various radio outlets, including BBC Radio Ulster and the popular alternative broadcaster Radio X (formerly Xfm). On the live circuit, they’ve supported artists as diverse as actor Michael C. Hall and the now legendary disco infused alternative rock band Electric Six.The 2022 EP ‘Koala Tea’ introduced even more people to the rocky Red Eye sound, but their second release, ‘Tequila King’, is an improvement in many respects.
Watch: Check out ‘Dark Waters’, the new video from Federale
In July 2024, Federale released ‘Reverb & Seduction’, an album of songs that took the listener on a journey via a world of dark narratives, but also presented some rich and varied musical arrangements. The most complex Federale album yet, the styles covered ranged from goth pop to cosmic country, from occasional indie jangles to a very retro singer songwriter approach with traces of Chris Isaak. It was the kind of album that, no matter where you chose to drop in. would offer the listener something interesting.