The four members of Southern
California’s Saint Blasphemer aren’t musical babes in the woods. Thomas Hudson,
John Castellon, Steve Shell, and Steve Ybarra have been kicking around the
Santa Ana music community for a number of years and their union under this
moniker is an unique marriage of complementary artistic aims and sheer,
undeniable chemistry. Their five song EP Simon Templar is a powerful and often
frightening examination of the ongoing heroin epidemic that has felled many of
their friends and family while simultaneously sweeping across much of the
community. They play a very distinctive brand of hard rock/heavy metal infused
with an audible strain of punk rock attitude and the production captures them
as a very live sounding unit who play with a great deal of fire and
spontaneity. Saint Blasphemer has a message to deliver, but they are never too
preachy and even the direst of their warnings isn’t without genuine compassion
and warmth.
Simon Templar opens with a blast of
rugged riffing entitled “Nullify”. The song eloquently and, sometimes,
explicitly describes the mindset of a sick addict better than perhaps any other
song of this ilk. It’s instrumentally quite excellent, particularly John
Castellon’s lead guitar. There are only a few scattered moments on this release
where the instruments take any flashy turns so, when they do, Saint Blasphemer
makes those moments count enormously. The typical use of guitar on the EP comes
with the second and title song “Simon Templar”. It has a compositional approach
that looks to mesh well with the bass and drums, but looks as well to tailor
itself to the musical backing. Hudson’s lyrics speak with the authority of the
survivor – there’s horror, anger, and grief in ample measure heavily weighing
on this song. The mid way point of Simon Templar comes with the track
“Scarecrow”. If the first two songs bowl listeners over with their wealth of
detail, Hudson turns up the heat even more with this gruesomely specific vision
of the long term soul-stripping effects of use. The musical backing practically
bristles with tension, but they make excellent use of theatrics moving between
darkness and light before ending the song as suddenly as it began and
concluding it with a decidedly muted coda.
“A Perfect Rose” has an exquisitely
crafted and careful opening with Hudson’s vocal yowl taking on an appealing
haunted, blue tone. His emotive range is a big part of Simon Templar’s success
with “A Perfect Rose” because you can feel his pain for the song’s subject in
every line and he never delivers those lyrics in a histrionic or heavy-handed
way. Simon Templar ends with the song “Breaking Just to Bend”, a wonderful
title considering an addict’s typical wont for demanding everything or nothing
at all from nearly every situation. The band tackles the song’s uptempo pace
with unmatched vigor that ends the EP on a definite high note. None of the EP’s
five songs are very long, but taken as a whole, this release provides a fair
window into the extent of this band’s talents and hints at future glories to
come.
9 out of 10 stars
Aaron Ellis
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