King Tuff – Black Moon Spell (2014)

There’s not an abundance of information out there available for Kyle Thomas. What is known is that he hails from Vermont, formerly played in a stoner-metal band called Witch, and places a wistful emphasis on the long-dead rock and roll of the era spanning from 1970 to the mid 1980’s. Since his departure from Witch, he has released several albums beginning in 2012 with his self-titled release under his new alias: King Tuff.

Black Moon Spell comes out of the floodgates strong with the album’s namesake—a burst of strong-but-hazy guitars cloaked by an appropriate, fuzzy-but-clean filter, and a drum beat so thumping you’d almost think Meg White were behind the kit—that instantly immerses you in Tuff’s interpretation of rock. This is a ride that doesn’t let up once through the course of Black Moon Spell. It’s evident that Kyle Thomas has turned his musical preference and passion into his niche as an artist, and the foundation of his music recalls that of a prime Black Sabbath—but that sound has become a proverbial canvas onto which Tuff has splashed the paint of several other related genres, including but not limited to: psychedelic-rock, folk, stoner-rock, lo-fi, and the fleeting glam-rock of the mid 80’s. To compare his sound to that of a more contemporary artist, there are audible elements of groups like Wolfmother or The White Stripes in his music. However, despite King Tuff seemingly drawing from a cornucopia of influences, he neither imitates nor necessarily emulates any: his sound, whether you like it or not, is his sound. And he does a pretty good job with it.

In a lot of ways, Black Moon Spell is very similar to its predecessors, but in a lot of ways it isn’t. Tuff’s debut album, King Tuff, starts off in a format akin to Black Moon Spell with the aptly titled “Anthem,” a track reinforced by a booming, guitar-heavy riff that diverges into an even more complex lick by the middle of the song. This early record shows off a more innocent side of Tuff—not that his music is any less energetic, but he is clearly clinging on to some of his garage-band roots. Black Moon Spell preserves all the intensity from its predecessors, but shows a more mature, developed side of Kyle Thomas. It doesn’t feel like King Tuff is compromising the style that brought him into the spotlight, but rather placing a more concerted effort on growing and adapting as an artist naturally.

It’s better to regard Black Moon Spell as a cohesive unit rather than a series of tracks, because a lot of its strength lies in its conceptual efforts. Tracks like the opener, “Magic Mirror,” “Rainbow’s Run,” and “Eddie’s Song” blend together in their own category of hard-nosed rock, and tracks like “Sick Mind,” “Headbanger,” “Beautiful Thing,” and the excellent “Black Hole Stereo” in another, characterized by a more energetic, buzzing, punk-ish sound . The album as a whole plays fairly seamlessly for the most part—there is the immaterial interlude-esque “I Love You Ugly,” but hey, even the hardest of rockers need a break, right?

Tuff’s lyrics may be one of his stronger or weaker points, depending on how partial you are to the hackneyed subjects rockers have been writing about from decades: everything from how insane they are, how many drugs they or more importantly their girlfriends do, and a sprinkle of supernatural references. Though Black Moon Spell adheres to this paradigm for the most part, between songs expressing grandiose visions of rock ‘n’ roll are sincere sentiments: on “Black Hole Stereo,” he sings: “Girls and boys come from outer space, and so does music, too/ I learned more working at the record store than I ever did in high school.” Lyrics like these can easily fall through the cracks in this kind of music, but if you pay attention, they’re there. King Tuff doesn’t spend all of the record talking about drugs, aliens, girls, demons, and his unrequited love for Sabbath and Judas Priest, just most of it—although for the kind of music he’s recording, I don’t know what else you’d expect to hear.

Arguably the strongest aspect of this record and all of King Tuff’s music in general is its production: it finds an inexplicable medium between an unpolished, low fidelity sound and a brusque, loud-treble-in-your-ear rendition of the quintessential rock sound. You’ll find more of the former in his earlier works and more of the latter in Black Moon Spell, reflecting Tuff’s desire to move forward into his rock stardom—and thankfully he does so without completely abandoning that warm, “this album only comes in 8-tracks” resonance. He does a great job of creating music derived from a genre that’s for the most part dead, while keeping it in check by means of contemporary standards.

King Tuff is an interesting character, to say the least. He’s passionate yet whimsical, crude yet recondite, and more ingrained in the roots of the rock music he loves than most modern artists. Personality wise, he’s almost reminiscent of Brian Johnson from The Breakfast Club, minus most of the emotional baggage. He represents an archetypal rocker of this era, and he makes his music by his own standards. The only glaring problem in Black Moon Spell, other than its cursory lyrics, is that it tries to advance from its predecessors, but instead of doing so in strides it does so in baby-steps. King Tuff has had a good thing going for him—he’s a rock star in a generation without any, and he’s a compelling character, but he seems to have already found his specialty in his first two albums, and doesn’t necessarily need to deviate from that formula. That being said, Black Moon Spell is still a solid album, especially for those already fans of Tuff, and it has all the elements it needs to captivate potential fans. It is, plain and simple, a satisfying rock record.

79/100