last sunday i went to see red fang play live in hamburg. of course i knew that the band released their new record two days before, on 14th of october. when the release was announced, i considered to order the most limited colour version from relapse but the damn thing sold out super fast. therefore i wanted to wait for the european edition on hot pink vinyl. it isn't that limited but i thought the colour way looked pretty cool.
then i saw the announcement of red fang's european tour this autumn and was delighted to see that they would stop at hamburg as well. i saw them live at wacken open air this year, they played a great set and i was really looking forward to see them in a more intimate club show setting. furthermore i thought it might be cool to snag a limited tour colour edition of which i read in the relapse pressing info. what can i say, the show was great.
the band seemed to really enjoy playing the new songs and people were going crazy. especially when they played their encore and let loose the "prehistoric dog". good times. torche played as support act and just before they hit the stage i went to the merch table and grabbed three copies of "only ghosts". one for my uncle, another one for a good friend and the last one for myself. now that i listened to the record a few times, i can only say that the band's third full length is in no way inferior the the prior albums.
red fang take no prisoners with their catchy mix of stoner rock, sludge, doom metal and some progressive elements. i love the fact that they are so variable, not least because the two vocalists. bass player aaron beam and guitarist maurice bryan. beam brings in a queens of the stone age edge and bryan the rough high on fire spirit. winner combination. the artwork has a nice seventies feel to it and works lovely with the gold with black splatter vinyl. a shame there is no insert with lyrics. 1000 copies made exclusive to the band. relapse records. 2016.
