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Alice in Chains:
🎵 Nutshell

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https://vlasismetaxas.bandcamp.com/album/alice-in-chains-nutshell

https://open.spotify.com/track/2i3NbLo6hKKasQXAb2qBGG

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From their origins in Mexico City to the 2022 SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, the three members of Demons My Friends have a shared journey that made their union fateful. This shared geography has played a role in their musical process, as they split recording their sophomore album, Survive/Yourself, between Mexico and Texas. Post-COVID personal struggles inform the record’s themes, with illness, job losses, and family crises cited as sources of the anxiety that fueled their songwriting. Demons My Friends don’t deliver doses of sadboi, however. What they play is a raw, rough, and gritty style of grunge. Though it flirts with mainstream acts like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, Survive/Yourself plays its grunge outside the box. While creating music is undoubtedly a healthy outlet, the question remains as to whether it’s a good idea to get too friendly with your demons.

Demons My Friends mixes thick stoner/sludge guitar tones with catchy alternative rock hooks for a compelling sonic palette. The fuzzy guitar on opener “The Theory of Change” evokes Mastodon, while the chorus takes a page out of ’90s rock acts like Nirvana and Bush. Yet the tracks on Survive/Yourself run a bit longer than the more radio-friendly examples of grunge, allowing room for meandering and play. Often these moments serve as highlights, especially the melodic lead that pops up mid-song on “The Last Dance.” And though the sludge proves to be the dominant guitar tone, Demons My Friends also show their more sensitive side. “Kalorama,” with its catchy strummed guitar lead, borrows heavily from Pearl Jam’s soft jams. On other tunes, the guitar grows more playful, with a twangy arpeggio on “We All End Up Here” and a really cool psychedelic bit on the record’s catchiest song, “Brain Holographics.”

Survive/Yourself by Demons My Friends

Unfortunately, Demons My Friends also end up being their own worst enemy. The back half of Survive/Yourself finds a pretty successful formula with some catchy tunes that could almost pass for radio-friendly. Yet the band makes some questionable choices that hold them back. As great as “Brain Holographics” is, it stretches on for too long thanks to a lengthy instrumental detour that sees the song nearly lose its way. The fun, High on Fire-inspired stoner track, “Smile,” includes a weird bit of growling that mars a rather tight tune. Also at issue are the vocal performances. Since both Pablo Anton and Lu Salinas have vocal credits, I’m not sure who’s the culprit, but one of the two consistently sounds off-key, and his voice especially strains on higher registers (most noticeable on “Last Dance” and “Star Child”). These sound issues give a sense of raw emotion, but they also distract from the flow of the songs.

The production, with a DR score of 10, proves a boon, but some production choices prove a bane. The largest boon belongs to the guitars. The thick, fuzzy tone is so satisfying as it fires up on “The Theory of Change” and then again about two minutes into “We All End Up Here.” Similarly, Salinas’s bass benefits, contributing some funk on “Brain Holographics” and some nastiness on “Smile.” Littered throughout Survive/Yourself, however, are odd sound issues that detract from the music. The finale of “The Theory of Change” sounds like someone let their kid play with the recording equipment, as a childlike voice repeats “I” over and over. Other noise effects tricked my brain into thinking I was hearing something outside the music. Pattering raindrop drum beats on “Brain Holographics” had me looking up at the ceiling, scared to see a leak. Vocal oddities here and there, such as the strange spoken parts on “Star Child,” gave me the feeling someone had crept up behind me. Cleaning these issues up would have resulted in a much smoother album.

While they showcase some nice licks and cool ideas, Demons My Friends have some demons to exorcise from their songwriting repertoire. There are aspects of their more experimental side that work well—some exploratory instrumental passages and the varied guitar tones. Yet some of what they do just pulls listeners out of the musical experience. They have a clear knack for some great hooks—I find myself humming the chorus on “Brain Holographics” pretty frequently, for one. I look forward to hearing how they are able to evolve their blend of experimental and mainstream music on their next release.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Ripple Music
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Site
Releases Worldwide: April 17th, 2026

https://www.tiempoar.com.ar/ta_article/unplugged-alice-in-chains/

#aliceinchains #grunge #rock #historiadelrock #historico

Few things at AMG Industries make us prouder than watching bands once scrutinized under AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö move on to greener pastures. In 2013, Seattle’s Witch Ripper endured our time‑honored hazing ritual, earning universally positive marks with their groovy, sludgy self-titled EP. Despite that early promise, lineup changes derailed the efforts of Curtis Parker (ex-Iron Thrones) and company for six years. Their patience finally paid off with debut LP, Homestead, in 2018 and with a solidified lineup, Witch Ripper continued to build momentum with their acclaimed sophomore record, The Flight After the Fall. Where Witch Ripper and Homestead captured the quartet at their heaviest and most sludge‑soaked, Through the Hourglass finds Witch Ripper finally hitting their stride, continuing their evolution toward melody, atmosphere, and emotional contour.

Picking up The Flight After the Fall’s narrative threads, Through the Hourglass leans into more hooks and musicality rather than sheer weight, all while staying within relatively traditional song structures. Operating at the nexus between modern Mastodon, Baroness and Anciients, Chad Fox’s and Curtis Parker’s guitars shift from rock chugs to swirling melodicism (“Echoes and Dust”), sparkling arpeggios (“The Portal”), bluesy refrains, and expressive solos (“The Spiral Eye”) as the duo assumes joint vocal duties with bassist Brian Kim. There’s a classic‑rock warmth woven through the riffs, and the foursome has trimmed some of the fat from earlier releases in favor of cuts with tighter runtimes and more focused, purposeful songwriting. Drummer Joe Eck is a force, adding battle‑tom flourishes (“Symmetry of the Hourglass”), shifting snare rolls, and polyrhythmic accents (“Echoes and Dust”) that elevate even the simplest riffs. Through the Hourglass doesn’t reinvent Witch Ripper’s sound so much as refine the traits they’ve been cultivating all along.

Through The Hourglass by Witch Ripper

Naturally extending its lineage that first emerged on The Flight After the Fall, Through the Hourglass carries forward similar melodic instincts and structural tendencies while still nodding to the heavier, riff‑driven roots of their early days. Once the unnecessary intro “Odyssey in Retrograde” fades, lead single “The Portal” sets the tone with Witch Ripper’s familiar blend of rock‑leaning riffs and soaring melodies, acting as a foundational bridge between records and serving as a proper setup to “Symmetry of the Hourglass,” a killer track that displays every strength Witch Ripper brings to the table. Its anthemic chorus, soulful, bluesy solo, and fully dialed-in songwriting keep circling back to its best ideas. Even a messy instrumental section in the second verse doesn’t stop my head from bobbing throughout. “Echoes and Dust” pushes these ingredients even further, pairing a fat modern‑rock groove with arpeggiated heft and high‑energy drumming at the record’s apex to drive the quartet’s best song to date. The record’s more experimental turns, like the somber Alice in Chains‑tinged ballad “Proxima Centauri,” or Irene Barber’s (Dust Moth) ethereal choral chants on “The Spiral Eye,” feel like natural extensions of the spacey, post‑rock textures they’ve flirted with before, even if the latter and “The Clock Queen” occasionally drift into repetition.

Fox’s singing and Parker’s sustained growls1 both sound more confident on Through the Hourglass, balancing each other capably while shaping the album’s expressive landscape. On earlier records, clean vocals were sparse-to-nonexistent, serving more as atmospheric color than a defining feature. Through the Hourglass places them front and center, taking control of Witch Ripper’s modern identity. Fox’s bright, emotionally charged vocal lines set the stage, with vibrato‑heavy phrases that sound strikingly expressive—particularly on tracks like “Proxima Centauri” and “Symmetry of the Hourglass”—yet also have a tendency to strain occasionally on higher notes (“The Clock Queen,” “The Portal”). Still, it’s an apt choice given how it elevates the material. And when it’s paired with Parker’s corroded roars, the combination creates a striking contrast that lifts the airy choruses higher even as the harsher tones periodically threaten to overpower them.

Witch Ripper has come a long way since initially grabbing the bull by the horns. Despite some uneven moments, Through the Hourglass shows Witch Ripper has grown more confident, more expressive, and more capable of balancing heaviness with melody in ways that feel both natural and earned. It confirms the band’s arrival after years of growth and recalibration, distilling the group’s evolution into a compelling, emotionally charged chapter that signals these Northwesterners have stepped fully into their identity. It’s a milestone that suggests Witch Ripper’s time has only just begun.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Magnetic Eye Records
Websites: witchripper.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Witchripper
Releases Worldwide: April 10th, 2026

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Antes de que termine la jornada por estos lados del mundo, vengo a recordar que hoy se conmemora el día en que murió el grunge. Una fecha muy triste para quienes recibimos mucha influencia de la música de 2 grandes del género: Kurt Cobain -El más grande, sin duda alguna-, fallecido el 5 de abril de 1994; y Layne Staley, quien falleció en la misma fecha el año 2002.

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