Song of the Week: Man's Gin - Nuclear Ambition
God Be Damned When The Music's Over
To be fair, this is two songs. The reason I chose to present them as one is because, although different, they are meant to be heard together. Sure they can both stand alone as great songs, but they flow into each other, form both parts of an (abstract) story and share a chorus.
Erik Wunder not only has that undefinable spark that separates the great from the good, but he is able to translate that into more than one vision. Cobalt's Gin was fantastic, certainly a landmark for American black metal. It had riffs, it had atmosphere, it kicked ass while exploring new territory, but more than anything it was a breath of fresh air in a largely saturated scene. It was not only excellent, it was one of those rare moments where music can completely take you somewhere.
Phil is in the army, so that means Cobalt can only record sporadicly. In his downtime, Erik has created Man's Gin, which is a completely different entity than Cobalt. Mixing bluesy americana with a fair helping of grunge, Man's Gin are also one of those rare occurrences where music can truly take you out of yourself. This two-parter shows both the quieter side of Man's Gin and the more rock'n'roll side. The first side is mostly acoustic based, and much of it has a rustic quality about it.
The second track is truly anthemic. It has an ass kicking take-no-prisoner style existentialist message. With great lines such as "Live and let die when your going nowhere, live and let live just don't work for me", "I wanna die in a concrete ocean, I wanna ride a neutron bomb" and "In a world gone wrong and I'm gone wrong too, yeah, God be damned when the music's over", this song packs one hell of a two thumbed (Thompson is definitely an influence for the lyrics) punch.
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