The Midnight Ghost Train - Cypress Ave.

After seeing them several times at the Hellfest 2015 or the Stoned from the Underground 2015, I stumbled over this juwel of record, which has almost nothing commun with their previous releases. Starting with Steve Moss´ throat which turns into a hearttouching voice, passing the heavy distorted blues which turns in a more ambient and more colorful one and the guitar is never the powerchord shredding monsteraxe as it was before. Yes folks, I write about these three buffalos, having destroyed stages and audiences from 50 up to 5000 spectators.

"Tonight" opens the stage and it remains me to an Everlast track with a more heavy attitude. And Steve Moss proves not only on the following track "Red Eyed Junkie Queen", that he can tell thrilling stories based on a groovy rhythm section. A "old" MGT-song. Same as "Glenn´s Promises" which hammers through my speakers with a distorted bass and the exactly right dosed fuzzy guitar. "The Watcher´s Nest" touches me as an absolute Mountain maniac. The first song with a change of mood and dynamics and a catchy hookline. "Break My Love" lingers along as a Tom Waits song, also one of my favorites, very muddy and basic and rooted deep in the delta. "Lemon Trees" is and will be one of my all-time-faves. It really cought me from the first chord until the coda and made me cry and sent me shivers all over. 

"The Boogie Down" comes as a mid 70´s jazzy funk track with trumpets, a driving bass line and an old school rap. Cool track. Usually I don´t like this kind of music, but you hear the twinkles between the lines. Again another all-time-fave kurking aroundwith a softly brushed snare drum and another fantastic bass-line and laid-back guitar. And again, it´s not just the music that touches me. Steve Moss´ voice and lyrics managed again to listen to this song again and again.

"The Echo" offers you a wide range of dynamics within the instruments, vocals and lyrics. A touching introspective song and a dignified end of a wonderful rollercoaster record.

I hate marks and the diversity and intensity of Motörhead´s Overkill fits perfectly to Cypress Ave.  Yeah, I know, Overkill is a masterpiece, but in fact it´s Lemmy´s blueprint in his musical retrospective and avantgardistic composing.