Crack The Sky
Tribes
Carry On Music
Crack the Sky is one of those bands that showed promise but never makes the big time. I found their 1976 second album Animal Note in a used bin decades ago. I loved it yet but successfully missed hearing there next two dozen albums until this one. It’s a hard rock sound, drums and anger supporting guitars and biting lyrics. The band revolves around vocalist John Palumbo and guitarist Rick Witkowski, and you can hear the echoes of Progressive Rock still reverberating in this project. While I don’t hear a hit on this collection, there are interesting and listenable tunes everywhere.
Opening cut “Tribes” is a shifty “snake in the grass” political screed, dripping anger and menace. A stop-start bass and drum emphasize the menace, threatening to start a riot at the least provocation. It’s a fitting intro to the next track: “Another Civil War.” In this battle, slavery and honor fail, and the result is a long instrumental, highlighted by a banjo melody interspersed with vocalist John Palumbo singing “You call me Libtard, I call you Walmart.” Its succinctly captures today’s political climate and ends with a climatic “Yeah, next time!” It feels like we are back in the 1960’s but this generational split is not by age but population density. There’s even ominous helicopter effects leading into “Dear Leaders” and direction for us to “Blow Up Detroit.” It may be too late for that to help, but you get the drift. Not everything here is political, and eventually we glide back into a old time rock and roll topics like “Drinking Myself Sober” or the funky “Alligator Man.” These guys may be getting a bit long in the tooth, but they still can crank out exciting relevant rock in the style of pre-punk power rock. I suggest you give them a spin, there’s a positive energy in this disc.
