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“Moonshine Bright” Reviewed On No Depression

Review of Moonshine Bright on No Depression, read it online HERE:

No Depression - Phantom of the Black Hills“Phantom of the Black Hills, one of the outlaw music scene’s favorite bands of renegade pickers, strummers, pluckers and bangers, is back with a new album on Ratchet Blade Records, Moonshine Bright. Continuing to terrorize the musical wagon trail of the current roots revival with their sound of doom country, frontier-core, and hellbilly punk, Phantom of the Black Hills’ most recent collection of songs is as powerful and violent as the fiery blast of an old blunderbuss, with each deadly projectile hitting a different mark.

Throughout Moonshine Bright, Phantom of the Black Hills lays down some mean distorted chords, plenty of pickin’ and strummin’, hillbilly fiddin’, strong drums, and gritty outlaw vocals. The opening song, which is also the title track, is as dirty and intoxicating and homegrown as the contents of the musical barrel in which it was distilled. “Hellbetties Risin’,” the first single from Moonshine Brightand a raw cowpunk offering with male and female vocals, is as sharp as the edge of a boot knife. “In Hell” is a lawbreaker anthem which rides like hell for the horizon, loot in hand, putting some distance between oneself and the hangman’s noose, yet knowing full well that, when the time comes, hell will be one’s ultimate destination. “The Storm is my Shelter” is about as close to traditional country music as this band gets, but it is still pretty far removed from the purist idea of the genre, which is decidedly a good thing. The closer, “A Life for an Eye,” is a little different from the rest of the album in that it is garagey roots rock and dark country punk hybrid.

Moonshine Bright by Phantom of the Black Hills is available from the Ratchet Blade Records webstore here.”

Phantom Remix On New Heathen Apostles Album

The Phantom of the Black Hills has done a remix of the Heathen Apostles song The Reckoning for their new album Requiem For A Remix, out now on Ratchet Blade Records. The album also includes remixes by Chopper Franklin and Almighty Watching, click HERE to preview and purchase. Below is a sampler video for the album, the POTBH remix begins at 4:20 (yes that’s right).

 

POTBH Featured In New Heathen Apostles Video

The Phantom of the Black Hills have cameos in the new Heathen Apostles video for their version of Loretta Lynn’s Fist City. The two bands are both on Ratchet Blade Records and Fist City is the latest video from the Heathen Apostles new album Fire to the Fuse. Click HERE to preview the album.

If you cannot watch Youtube videos in your area click HERE to watch on Vimeo.

POTBH Video Cameo For Heathen Apostles

The Phantom of the Black Hills have made a cameo in the upcoming Heathen Apostles video, their version of Loretta Lynn’s Fist City. The Phantom does meet a violent end, but don’t worry, he lives to fight again! The video debuts on Monday October 26th, check back for more details and links.

Wanted Poster screenshot

Great Review of “Moonshine Bright” in Ox Zine

Another great review of Moonshine Bright in the German magazine Ox Zine, pick up issue #118 for the review:

Name-dropping galore in the Press Release: this record was produced by the Cramps late bassist Chopper Franklin and the Moonshine cover final 1 smmastering was done by Geza X  (the former producer of the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag. “Moonshine Bright” is album number five for the masked Hellbilly / Doom-country band from the USA. The genre style comes from the band itself, they blend a lively mix of styles from Southern Rock, punk, Alternative Country and a B-movie atmosphere. All in all it’s difficult to categorize: it is powerful, fully instrumented (supplemented by the classic country instruments: banjo, mandolin and violin), gloomy, aggressive and melodic. Bluegrass fiends will love the fast mandolin and banjo sections the best, and inevitably the rapid playing of Split Lip Rayfield comes to mind. But the again the next moment is a distorted guitar and the sound kicks into gloomy Rob Zombie to realms. The whole thing is exciting and is expected to attract fans of 16 Horsepower, Hank Williams III, The Meat Purveyors (and rockabilly and bluegrass in general) my equally much. 7 of 10 stars.

Christian Kruger
Ox Zine