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 BIO | ALBUM REVIEWS | LIVE REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS |
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| Album Reviews |
 NEBULA - LET IT BURN CMJ New Music Report by Liz Ciavarella They've got that raw, filth-ridden edge straight outta the Sabbath-days (and I mean that in the most flattering way possible). They're rugged, heavy and ultra-retro with enough 90's vitality to appeal to both the old-school 70's rock/metal devotees and the more modern order of listeners. Let It Burn exhibits an inebriating wonder world of inherent ingenuity. The band strays leagues away from the province of processed, microchip generated instrumentals. They're not even in the same ball park... not even in the same stadium! Nebula are the minimalists of music; the way rock began. No big, expensive effects racks, pop-up-drummers, or voice manipulators. They're vintage and proud! And it's through their smoked up, feed backish, overdriven galaxy of coarsely harmonious groove that members, Mark Abshire (bass), Ruben Romano (drums, percussion sitar), and Eddie Glass (guitars, vocals, percussion), have cultivated an organic, carefree flavor like no other. The LP is glazed over with crunchy-yet-clean vocals, a spaced, atmospheric aura and blues-driven undertones that maintain the momentum throughout the disc while the closing ritualistic instrumental will leave you stripped naked in a tribal dance. Don't miss this. back to album reviews |
NEBULA - LET IT BURN Stoner Rock Rules Rating: 8 by Luciano Gaglio Do you want to know something? I'm happy for the fact that Eddie Glass and Ruben Romano left Fu Manchu and formed Nebula with Mark Abshire, 'cause now we have two great bands with a different approach to the sludge music! In fact, if Fu Manchu's "The Action Is Go" is more riff-oriented and influenced by the hardcore genre, instead "Let It Burn" re-propose with unchanged power the same huge guitar work (full of incredible solos!) which marked some of the best songs on "In Search Of...". Plus, all those psychedelic elements that Eddie Glass and Co. love so much. Do you remember that fabulous psych-ballad from "In Search Of..." titled "Neptune's Convoy"? Or that delicious blues song called "The Bargain"? Well, both those songs were composed by Eddie Glass, so now you can understand what are the coordinates of Nebula's stoner rock. For example, "Raga In The Bloodshot Pyramid" is an acoustic and trippy raga impregnated with lysergic vapors, thanks to the use of a sitar: I bet that we will never have the pleasure to listen to a song like this one in a Fu Manchu's album! "Dragon Eye" and "Vulcan Bomber" are other great songs, a perfect soundtrack for a ride on the burning asphalt of the American's highways. But "Down The Highway" remains my favorite track, probably the best one on this EP, and surely a song which brings up-to-date in the best way Blue Cheer's acid blues. And take a look at the black Nebula's photo in the booklet: it is a sincere homage to "Vincebus Eruptum"'s cover (Blue Cheer's legendary first album), isn't it? Next month the band will enter in the studio to record its debut album, but since now "Let It Burn" doesn't leave any doubts: Nebula shine with their own light, and it is the light of a solar blast, which will swallow all your mental and physical resistance. Let yourself be blinded by it. back to album reviews |
NEBULA - LET IT BURN UniverCity by Colin Helms Once it's made clear that the three members of Nebula all did time in the bong smoke-clouded van of acid-metal faves Fu Manchu, the rest, as they say, all makes sense. Let It Burn, the six-song debut from this Southern California band, is a blues-soaked trip through psychedelic guitar rave-ups and fat-bottomed grooves. Black Sabbath and the Stooges are the operative influences here, with guitarist/vocalist Eddie Glass managing to pull off the drugged-out histrionics of Sabbath's headier moments while sticking to the low-end, muscular riffage that both outfits worked to their own benefit. The band's obvious interest in the mysticism of '60s hippiedom is made apparent in the sitar-laced closing track, "Raga In The Bloodshot Pyramid," while the remainder of the album kicks up a technicolor duststorm of acid-blues licks, bad-ass vocals and pummeling rhythms. We recommend consuming your favorite recreational substance to the driving grooves of "Let It Burn," "Elevation" and "Vulcan Bomber." back to album reviews |
NEBULA - LET IT BURN Kerrang! (UK) No. 688 February 28, 1998 by Morat What is it with stoner outfits? Do they smoke so much hash that they forget which bands they're supposed to be in or what? Nebula are made up of three original members of Fu Manchu (guitarist Eddie Glass, drummer Ruben Romano and bassist Mark Abshire), the former pair having woke up one morning to find that some of Kyuss had joined their then-band, and the latter having realized that he hadn't actually been in Fu Manchu for ages. Like, bummer, man! Whatever, Nebula - as you might expect - sound very similar to Fu Manchu, with a more cosmic vibe replacing the latter's obsession with big cars. As such, this six-track mini-album is a damn fine start, and if they can keep it together, we can expect great things for them. Write them at Nebula, PO Box 3837, Wittier, CA 90605-3837, USA, and remind them they're in a band once in a while. back to album reviews |
NEBULA - LET IT BURN Rockerilla (Italy) No. 213 May 1998 "NEBULA: COSMIC VOLCANO" by Beppe Riva Nebula, a name full of sidereal omens to identify a trio of ex-Fu Manchu's "dissidents". As the split for two of them from the "In search of ..." band was less than happy, with vitriolic comments from each part, we were eager to verify the consistency of this new group , which, considering their six-track release "Let it burn", is a first rate one. The band members consider this EP as just a "demo" put on CD, but I think that their humility is totally out of place! Actually "Let it Burn" is the other face of Fu Manchu's evolution; and if Scott Hill's "supporters" followed a more hardcore and spontaneous style with "The Action is Go", Nebula prefer the cosmic side of music, turning to trippy sounds close to Monster Magnet's ones, as well as molding in a similar way the late sixties' garage rock heritage. It is pointless to emphasize that the result is nonetheless powerful, but in my opinion it is more imaginative: just listen to the swirls created in the deep space by Eddie Glass, who's really a stirring guitarist, in "Elevation" and "Vulcan Bomber". That the launching pad is the same as in the early Fu Manchu, also in the vocal approach, is clear from "Down the Highway" and the title track, but their interest towards new experimentations is well declared in the last piece, " Raga in the Bloodshot Pyramid", an ultrapsychedelic and "Indian" raga rock (as the title says!), with its wonderfully oscillating acoustic guitar and sitar. back to album reviews |
