Harvey Mandel - The Snake - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The debut full length album from Pittsburgh's Ritual Mass is more than a collection of songs, it's a series of calculated assaults on the virtue of the holy. Evolving beyond earlier EP and demo releases, Cascading Misery encapsulates the bludgeoning infliction of pain and the slow peel of skin by flame, rife with both sonic chaos and extinguished hope.From the outset of album opener InchObsidian MirrorInch the atmosphere is oppressive, thick with a suffocating malaise. There is a sense of something ceremonial at work but not in a way that seeks communion. Rather it's ordeal as sacrament. Riffs strangle and churn into convulsive submission, oscillating from slow agony to psychotic break, over which a guttural lament so savage it freezes the blood is wrenched through dungeon stone. Each track unfolds like time spent in isolation, bound by chains, the mind slowly unraveling and surrounded by memories of torment both real and imagined.By the time the epic fourteen-minute album closer 'Disquiet' dissipates into a mass of formless static, Ritual Mass have dragged you into a world where suffering is not an end but a condition of existence. Cascading Misery is music for the dissolution of hope, the terror of being, and the long march toward death.

Always the innovator, always in demand and a pioneer of electric blues, few guitarists can claim to have played with John Mayall, Canned Heat and the Rolling Stones, performed at Woodstock and at the Grammy Awards with Bob Dylan. Harvey InchThe SnakeInch Mandel's career has spanned over 50 years, bridging the gap between the blues, jazz and rock with his two handed fretboard tapping and his creative use of sustain and controlled feedback. Mandel was a major influence on the styles of legendary artists Stanley Jordan, Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai, among others. Born in Michigan but raised in Chicago, he played with other Second City blues and rock greats like Charlie Musselwhite, Howlin' Wolf, Mike Bloomfield, Steve Miller, Muddy Waters and Barry Goldberg before moving to San Francisco after being invited to play at the Fillmore by Bill Graham. And the InchSnakeInch (so named by Barry Goldberg) continues to perform at a high level as hen tours with the Chicago Blues Reunion and the Snake Crew.

This product is an authorized manufactured on demand CD-R