Cobra Cult

The great irony with this release is that it was perhaps the most innovative and interesting on the Shrapnel label, yet received little attention until years later. Yngwie Malmsteen's influence on young guitarists produced an endless supply of technically competent, but largely uninspired, effigies. Mark Varney signed the German guitarist/composer Bernd Steidl, who had been studying at the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) in California, after hearing a demo tape. Released without much press or fanfare, the recording was only mildly successful within the guitar-shred community. Perhaps the reason for this was that the core American audience, primarily young, heavy metal-influenced guitar students, were not ready for the level of sophistication presented in this acoustic format.

A few years ago, Black Moth Super Rainbow, the trippy, hallucinatory psych outfit led by producer Tobacco, dropped SeeFu Lilac, a surprise album said to be “neon flavored outtakes from a 6th album that doesn’t yet exist.” Well, good news: It does now, because the band just announced Panic Blooms, its first proper LP since 2012’s Cobra Juicy. Expect it on May 4th via Rad Cult.