Rhode Island’s hard rocking glam band Gamma Rage recently emerged from the studio with this frenzied, energetic eponymous debut album.
Singer Malyssa BellaRosa’s beautiful and terrifying vocal opens the album with “Gloom,” a song part classic rock, part goth, and part whatever this band’s creativity reaches out toward and pulls in. BellaRosa burns through this track with an unusual smoldering intensity, her sustains powerful and loaded with dark emotive impulse. Startlingly good and spooky guitar work from ushers us further into a spiraling world of madness as the rhythm section provides the needed barnstorming stomp.
“Duncehall” tip toes in with haunting beauty, Chris Devona ‘s light guitar electricity soon give way to BellaRosa’s considerately paced breathlessness. Her controlled transmission of voice is housed beside the endless stream of bristling guitar energy. A good amount of rumbling chunk from the rhythm section powers this motion filled piece with something at once grounded and seriously dark.
Racing along hard rock ensemble style, “Crash ‘N Burn” plays out with the urgency of a car chase scene. One never knows if this band will crash and burn but it’s a distinct possibility at the speed they’re playing and the twisty motions they go through here. BellaRosa applies her more aggressive vocal, almost shout singing as a guitar erupts and the rhythm section pound it home.
“Blindsided” ups the hard rocking ante even more. While BellaRosa speedily sings in a softer whispery timbre, she still injects a sense of urgency. It’s in her tempo as well as her excited, neurotic expression. Twitchy lead guitar and steady jolts of groove make a good home for her repressed spirit to express its self-restrained power.
Chris Devona’s guitar jumps into action on “Scorcher,” a grinding sound, compressed energy being released in each meter. The tightness between lead guitar and bass guitar and drums gives a feeling of a criminal team knocking off a bank and racing away with the loot. There are so many furious notes rolled into this tightly wrapped sandwich of a song that one can’t help but feel something just about to explode. BellaRosa’s use of her shout-sing technique is like the torch threatening to light the wick.
“Crimes” gets an infectious rumble from its hard rocking rhythm men. This tune’s motor keeps a thick tubing of motion beneath the upper registers. Jumpy guitar phrasing injects another layer of motion here, and its sparky energy keeps a very movable platform for BellaRosa’s punk rock like belt. There is so much fiber here you cannot help but get caught up in this song.
Hard rock duet “SCP 3000” runs the gamut from fuzzy rhythm guitar to prettier, higher lead guitar melody. The rhythm section puts plenty of drum fills and bass guitar finesse beneath that solid topping. BellaRosa who wrote the chorus and drummer Mike Dellefemine, who wrote the lyrics, trade off on lead vocal duties, creating a lighter and a darker appeal over the brisk and busy musicianship below. It’s the wild sound created by the sum of all of the busy playing that makes this one rock.
Softer, slower vocal work lets BellaRosa and the others build up moody slow boiler “Gory Box” by Portishead. Her sensuous voice purrs over the pointy parapets of guitar spikes and the meticulous build up of supportive groove. Every sensitively played note contributes to the well constructed mood and the ending is quite satisfying as the song widens into greater expressions of voice and of instruments.
Close out track “Wake Me” combines softer, sweeter voices with more delicately played lead guitar. Its sensitive rendering of an urgent undercurrent shows the complexity of this band organic songwriting. It develops more urgency as it moves along, BellaRosa’s hint of spookiness travels anxiously alongside a seriously neurotic guitar. It’s a startlingly good close out to an album of startlingly good songs.
Gamma Rage shows their true colors on this debut album. Every vocal line, guitar phrase or guitar rhythm, low end motion, and drum fill grabs the listener by the ear. Then, Gamma Rage lures one in further, intriguing with their compelling soundscape that makes a listener feel he’s spiraling through time and space and other dimensions. Recorded at various Rhode Island and Massachusetts studios, the credits include Malyssa BellaRosa: vocals and lyrics; Chris Devona: guitar and music; Andrew Labossiere: guitar on 1-4, 6-8;
Adrian Greenbaum: guitar on 5 and 9;. Dwayne Voelker: bass guitar; Mike DelleFemine: drums on 7 and 8, vocals and lyrics on 7;.Nick Iddon: drums on 1-4 and 6;Eric Lindahl:drums on 5 and 9.
