Devil Blues Records is the brainchild of two friends who love music. Making music together in Phantom Hound made it easy to create this space and now we want to share what we’ve learned with others to help and promote others.
That’s our story and this record is the first offering and all the muscle we have to launch this label for the immediate future.
It is our goal to find like-minded artists to share this space with and promote us all to find success with our music.
Phantom Hound
Oakland, California
Jake Navarra – Guitars/Vocals
Jack Stiles – Drums/Backing Vocals
Stephen Rogers – Bass/Keys
This power trio is known for combining elements of the Blues, Stoner Rock & Doom Metal to create their own form of original music.
DBR-01
Phantom Hound – Mountain Pass
Released 3/28/2020
© All Rights Reserved 2020 – Devil Blues Records
Review by Billy Goate – Doomed & Stoned
I live not far from the railroad and there’s something very comforting about hearing a train roll in. It’s appropriate that the might and roar of that metallic convoy be responsible for opening the new record from PHANTOM HOUND.
This new record showcases a sound that’s genuinely enticing, much like GUNS N’ ROSES’ Appetite For Destruction was when I first heard it at age 12 (the first cassette I had to buy clandestinely from my parents).
The riff-making, from leads to solos, is strong with Mountain Pass. Driving each track forward like a mighty engine, from the rush of the opener “The Northern Face” to the grinding and bluesier “Thunder I Am,” as well as the chugging pistons of “Irons In The Fire,” and the Matt Pike-like filigrees of “The Southern Face.” Jake’s powerful pipes fall somewhere in between Chris Cornell’s soaring medium range, the raspy grit of Finnish vocalist Olli Suurmunne (KAISER, ALTAR OF BETELGEUZE), and the commanding force of Australia’s Chris Fisher (FIELD, LAMASSU).
A pleasant acoustic interlude, “Grace of an Angel” gives us a rest stop from the treacherous uphill journey, leading to the album’s expansive namesake track and a very overcast second-half. “Devil Blues” is quite effective in conjuring the rough terrain of the California mountains and the sense of lonesomeness one feels when traveling deep into the wild. We’ve now traveled from “The Northern Face” to meet “The Southern Face,” the Mountain Pass closer. It’s a doomy one for sure, though the intrepid tempo gives the sense of determination that this journey will be finished.
Review by The Sludgelord
American trio PHANTOM HOUND present a sound somewhere between SOUNDGARDEN and Stoner/Doom bands like SIXTY-WATT SHAMAN and ROADSAW. You get eight tracks of Blues inflected grooving Rock.
Opener “The Northern Face” sums up the band’s sound pretty well, while “Thunder I Am” is a solid slab with some time changes and extensive solo passages. The solo sections favor the strict trio format- no rhythm guitar under it. The guitar sound is a treat- thick and fuzzed out. The sound is raw and live.
All and the material is uniformly strong throughout. “You Don’t Know Death” is a fine track and then “Grace Of An Angel” brings acoustic guitars and bridges the first half of the album with the second. The epic title track is eight minutes plus of downbeat SOUNDGARDEN-esque Rock but it is bettered, in my view, by “Devil Blues” which is a wonderfully dynamic track with excellent guitar work.
“The Southern Face” closes the album out with close to eight minutes of very dark Rock, the driving main section is effective and very strong. Overall, this is a solid release of Stoner Rock that is as American as apple pie. If you like any of the bands mentioned above, give this a try. I assume you’ve got some time on your hands currently to do just that?!
Review by Metal Addicts
This an album where the word heavy acquires a new relevance and level. It’s great to hear again the extreme noise maker Fuzz pedal. Though the main drive of Mountain Pass is the 1990’s Grunge and its influences, there are still moments of the glorious Heavy Rock where the Fuzz pedal reigns supreme giving the fans the opportunity of getting to know the real roots of heavy music.
From the beginning, some bands such as ALICE IN CHAINS and SOUNDGARDEN showed their predilection for BLACK SABBATH. Many said that Grunge music was some kind of encounter between BLACK SABBATH and Punk Rock. Over-reaction in my opinion. Of course, there are lots of BLACK SABBATH elements, but very few of punk rock. PHANTOM HOUND here show the real influences that those 1990’s bands had.
Mountain Pass opens up with a distorted bass line which is followed by an insane drumming into and ever more insane vocals. The smell and taste of ALICE IN CHAINS is in the air as well as Sludge and Shoe-gazed guitar riffing. Heavy as hell, I must say. One thing that catches the fan is the heaviness of PHANTOM HOUND’S music. The inspired old school guitar solos as well. The ode to the 1960s Heavy Rock begins with the inflamed and groovy “Thunder I Am” which makes the fan bang the head with a feeling like JUDAS PRIEST’S White Heat, Red Hot. Next up is “Irons in the Fire” which is kind of a mix the both influences. The fan can listen to hybrid track and notices that it works pretty fine. And so the album goes with some real interesting and inspired guitar solos embellished by the good old Fuzz pedal.
By the way, what a nice instrumental acoustic track is “Grace of an Angel” which is followed by the arsonist title track “Mountain Pass” and its flaming guitar solo intro.
Review by The Obelisk
Mountain Pass, which begins with “The Northern Face,” ends with “The Southern Face” and along the way treks through its on-theme title-track and the speedier “You Don’t Know Death,” catchy “Thunder I Am” and fairly-enough bluesy “Devil Blues,” has its foundations in Old-School Metal and Punk, but is a decidedly Rock-based offering.
It’s the debut from Oakland California’s PHANTOM HOUND, and its eight component tracks make no attempt to mask their origins or coat their material in unnecessary pretense — they are what they are; the album is what it is.
The three-piece dip into acoustics on the instrumental “Grace of an Angel,” which shifts with a cymbal wash into the lead guitar at the outset of the eight-minute title-track — the stomp of which is perhaps more evocative of the mountain than the passing, but still works — but even this isn’t so far removed from the straightforward purposes of “Irons in the Fire,” which stakes its claim to dead-ahead Metal and Rock, barely stopping along the way to ask what else you could possibly need.