Biblical Proof of UFOs

As a reviewer for the local rock press, I have plenty of opportunities to size up a band's performance on a particular evening, or the tenor of an individual record. Defining a band's sound over the course of its career - trying to capture its very essence in a one-page biography - is another matter. Biblical Proof of UFOs is a three-piece. They are from Cleveland, Ohio. They play music.



How can I further elaborate on an ever-changing, organic thing? Well, for starters, even after numerous visits to the front row at their gigs, their performances continue to shock me. Like the bone-jarring jolt you receive after slamming a shovel into dirt and hitting bedrock instead, they are always a frequency or two heavier than I remembered.a decibel or two louder. They are excellent players who learned how to integrate their parts seamlessly after years of performing as an instrumental act inspired by the improvisational nature of jazz and fueled by a desire to explore and exhaust the boundaries of the jam. They got their shit down before they ever added vocals - and when they did - became an even better band, stripping away any vestiges of self-indulgence. Their songs these days are pure meat.not an ounce of fat.



Though they have an affinity for Hendrix, and have been compared to The Who and Queens of the Stone Age, they are not a caricature of any of their influences or contemporaries. Joey D. sings in a voice that is honest and unaffected, over a wall of brown chords and efficient guitar solos that can only be described as hard rock - always visceral - never succumbing to metal's over-processed thinness. Ray Piller tests the limits of what can be called bass, fuzzing and distorting his instrument to create a sound that is at once otherworldly and earthy. Drummer Mike Peffer lays the immutable foundation, careening around wild fills that decelerate like Bonham's - to the point where mere mortals would probably lose the groove - but he always comes back in on the one, nailing the beat to the microsecond. It's a nice combination.



-Liam Gowing

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