Female-fronted Philly buzz band lands on Tee Pee for its first major release. By now, the whole female-fronted retro-rock genre has been done to death, though to their credit, this outfit, Ruby the Hatchet, didn’t just come together yesterday—their self-released debut album saw the light of day in 2012.
Anyhoo, this second record offers six tracks in a compact 40 minutes, with several surpassing the six-minute mark. There’s undoubtably some tasty, heavy riffage here, shades of Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony and the 1,372 other bands that tread along similar ground. Not sure if it’s coincidental or intentional, but there’s a tune on this one called “Vast Acid” that sounds an awful lot like a certain eccentric uncle and his band of deadbeats. Not to mention that “Unholy Behemoth” apes Blood Ceremony’s “Return to Forever” and the 27 other songs that use that riff.
Of the six songs on here, doomy, nine-minute number “Tomorrow Never Comes” stands out. Again, it’s largely Jex Thoth worship, but captures the mood quite nicely. That being said, they don’t exactly bring anything new to this soon-to-be-no-longer-trendy style of music. Next!
Ruby the Hatchet on Tee Pee Records
