Back in 2005, Fireball Ministry released this. It’s a good job that MV didn’t exist then, If It had done, we’d have bored everyone to death with it.
Quite simply glorious from its cover to its finish “Their Rock Is Not Our Rock” merrily sets about defining what “our rock” is from the AC/DC-ish intro of “It Flies Again”, on which Emily J. Burton plays an absolute blinder on the guitar.
Her riffing – along with James A Rota, who bellows the likes of “Sundown” out – anchors the record, and if at the time, the reason I got the record in the first place was because Scott Reeder (Kyuss, The Obsessed) was playing bass, then it offered so much more. Like “The Broken”, with its brilliant chorus.
What strikes me, listening to this for the first time in a decade, probably, is that although it’s got a kind of greasy hard rock vibe – Orange Goblin could cheerfully do “In The End” – they don’t really sound like anyone else. Indeed, maybe even Goblin wouldn’t have sounded like that a couple of decades back.
“Hellspeak” is dry as dust “stoner”, but they understand melody and energy in a way that few of their peers do. “Two Tears” for example, races along on the back of Oreshnick’s drums.
“Under The Radar” – and the metaphors write themselves about it being apt for the band in general – is slower, while “Spill The Demons” imagines a world where Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath had a jam and the choppy “Rising From The Deep” is – with the benefit of hindsight – the type of thing that John Garcia was doing with Vista Chino a few years later.
As it all ends with “Save The Saved” – an almost Motorhead biker thing – you are left to reflect on how good this was. Recorded at Dave Grohl’s 606 West studio and produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains), “Their Rock Is Not Our Rock” is something of a gem, still.
And it’s worth reflecting on this: Fireball Ministry are still making their rock. Their way. And they don’t care for trends and fads. Just great songs.
Rating 9/10
