Saint Blasphemer is the name of an Alternative Metal band from Santa Ana, CA. Cool name. Simon Templar, if memory serves, was the name of the character played by Roger Moore on the TV series, The Saint, before he became James Bond. It is also the title of Saint Blasphemer's new CD.
In their press kit they state; "The
first songs were written and the band formed as a reaction to a heroin epidemic
sweeping Orange County." I'm a little farther north in L.A. County and I can attest to the heroin epidemic that hit my community hard and way too close to home. A close family member managed to pull through it and actually found a career as a certified addiction counselor but a kid I used to drive to school with my sons was not so lucky and is no longer with us.
Saint Blasphemer's video for 'Nullify'.
The first song on Saint Blasphemer's five song EP, 'Nullify' is a Stone Temple Pilots style Grunge Metal with somewhat Geddy Lee sounding vocals and was directly about the drug problem as was the last song on the EP, 'Breaking
Just to Bend'. The songs between them include
'Simon Templar', the title track which I would call Ozzy style. It’s
nice to hear a good, screaming wah wah pedal lead solo once in a while. Next 'Scarecrow' is a bit more Thrash Metal than the previous
tunes and this may be where the comparisons to Tool and Jane’s addiction come into
play. 'A Perfect Rose' is more of the same including the wah wah
solo. Cool.
Saint Blasphemer consists of Thomas
Monroe on lead vocals, John Castellon on guitar, Steve Shell on bass and Steve Ybarra on drums. 'Simon Templar' was recorded and engineered by Elliot Koenig at Hear No Evil Studio in Orange, CA. They've
been playing shows since February 2016 and their local community has praised Saint
Blasphemer for the power of their live performance and the lyrical writing of Thomas Monroe, head of the Orange County Poetry Club.
Saint Blasphemer's Simon Templar EP is yet another example of new music by young bands which makes me think music is coming back around to my kind of taste (that's not an insult). Lately I've been hearing some pretty knarley lead guitar solos which have been all but extinct. Metal has always been around although not on the radio but underground and I don't know if there is a new breed of Hard Rock / Heavy Metal clubs in Southern California anymore. I suppose the Troubadour and the Whiskey are still open although they may still be Pay To Play which sucks so much it actually kills new music scenes. If there are new local clubs and if anyone ever reads my reviews I would hope I would have been sent some comps to shows to it but it may just be my invisibility that intensifies as I get older. I suppose the new 'underground' is now in Cyberspace and that's where these new bands can be found; Youtube and their various websites are the new rock clubs. Clubs used to be where we would go to meet girls but it seems online is where young guys meet girls now too so I guess getting sent these press releases and song downloads to review is like getting free comps to clubs. I'm hip after all!
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