BLACK SPACE RIDERS
AMORETUM Vol.1 – Vinyl // CD // DD
Self Released – January 26, 2018
Reviewed By Terry “The Ancient One” Cuyler
***The Riders Mount Up Again***
Line Up:
JE (VOX, Guitars)
SLI (Guitars)
MEI (Bass)
C.RIP (Drums)
SEB (VOX)
Previous Releases:
2010 – S/T Black Space Riders,
2012 – Lights In the New Black,
2014 – D:REI,
2015 – Refugeeum
2016 – Beyond Refugeem
Musical Influences:
Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Thin Lizzy, The Chameleons, David Bowie, Bauhaus, Tom Waits, Slayer, Motorpsycho
Hello once again friends, this is The Ancient One and today I’d like to tell you about some out of this world music by a Quintet of space rockers from Münster, Germany called the Black Space Riders. In 2008 founding members JE, SLI, SAQ and C.RIP sought to give the music world music that could truly be called PSYCHEDELIC SPACE ROCK and created what they call a “NEW WAVE of HEAVY PSYCHEDELIC SPACE ROCK”. After listening to their current Album AMORETUM Vol. 1 released January 26th, 2018 and with their past releases I gotta say the band and their style of rock are aptly named.
What I enjoy most about the music is the detached far away sound. To create their take on the psychedelic space rock sound Black Space Riders seems to have combined desert rock, electronic music, a bit of 80’s new wave and some Post Punk with powerful vocals with anthem-like lyrics on the 2 most recent albums. If I were to compare them to anyone I’d say that I’m often reminded of Pink Floyd, and David Bowie with a harder edge.
When I first gave AMORETUM Vol. 1 a spin I was really not impressed with the first song however what followed changed my mind as I quickly realized Lovely Lovelie was a cornerstone for the rest of the album to be built on to give the listener a good starting point. It’s also a play on words. Lovely Lovelie – Lovely Love Lie get it. I didn’t because maybe I am a Doofus. Also its not a single song in a collection of songs that are put together simply because the sound fits with the occasional filler song to make the album longer. Rather its part of an album with a theme created by Black Space Riders. Although theme albums are nothing new to me, Black Space Riders may quite possibly have delivered a Magnum Opus with this one!
Refusing to be swallowed by the darkness AMORETUM Vol. 1 is the follow up to their July 2015 album “REFUGEEUM” that came out when it seemed the world had gone mad with fear and hate in Europe. Continuing to rage against that darkness with in us all Black Space Riders have mounted up and released AMORETUM Vol. 1 which is about conflict and seeks to inspire us to overcome our dark side. Specifically the conflicts between fear, hate, and rejection, darkness on the one hand, and love, empathy, and care light on the other. This album and band seem to be very relevant with acute razor-like lyrics that seek for positivity and rejecting hate…universally!! The superb musicianship by these veteran rockers shine with each new release and is again evident with Amoretum Vol. 1
Rather than bore you all to death with a track by track description of all the songs I am going to provide you links to my favorites on YouTube and Bandcamp and let you decide for yourselves.
Track Listing with Lyrics
LOVELY LOVELIE
Get back to your beds, hide in your hole
You lovers collapse while facing your fall
A paradise will no longer exist,
peace and love can no longer resist
Erupting fear breaking the wall
Lovely lovelie
Our garden, destroyed, taken by storm
We‘re bringing the harm, the hideous swarm
A love so deep, now determined to die,
wrapped and muffled by hate
Get back to your beds, here comes the storm
Lovely lovelie
Get back to your beds, hide in your hole
A love so deep, now determined to fall
Get back to your beds, facing your fall
Erupting fear tearing down every wall
Get back to your beds, hide in your …
Lovely lovelie
Lovely, lovely lie …
Another Sort of Homecoming
The times were terrifying
and coldness wrapped me up
I‘d been sent to see, to seek, to save
A long way to the top
How they turned their lives
into a mellow mass:
how they shed their feelings and their souls
forgot about the past
So, day by day
I denied my moaning heart
and repelled temptation, brave and strong,
to join and fall apart
Now it‘s time to change
My longing growing strong
Leave this place and coming home again
is what I really want
GO! Time to return to my ground
GO! I have to leave these souls I found
GO! Time to rest under the shield
GO! Energy!
Another sort of coming home
SOUL SHELTER (Inside Of Me)
Bringing back the sunshine
Remembering the light
A place attacked from outside
I keep this place inside
Inside of me, inside of me
Garden of completeness
A warm and tender light
A place attacked by darkness
Don‘t hide this place inside
Soul Shelter – Inside of me, inside of me
Soul Shelter – Inside of me, inside of you
Silent is the inside
All quiet now and clear
Knocking from the outside:
denial, hate and fear
Soul Shelter – Inside of me, inside of me
Soul Shelter – Inside of me, inside of you
MOVEMENTS
Just a glimpse of something lost,
flickering in my mind
Like a memory from the past, echoing
Ground control, lost control, no control
In a place where I belonged:
echoes from the past
In a time I called my home, wandering
Ground control, lost control, no control
How I missed the ones I loved,
moments passing by
Still I‘m waiting for the call, remembering
Ground control, lost control, no control
Movements
Comes a time, comes a time of reunion
Comes a place, comes a place of communion
Comes a time, comes a time of affection
Comes a place, comes a place of attraction
Comes a time, comes a time when we meet again
Comes a place, comes a place where we meet again
Comes a time, comes a time when we love again
Comes a place, comes a place where we live again
Stop and rest – consider and remember
Stop the quest – rethink and now remember
Rest, remain – and realize amazing
grace, retain – the echoes of your living
Go and see – now realize the beauty
Go and turn – now realize the grace
Go, return – get hold of all the beauty
Go and feel – compassion to embrace
Movements
Comes a time, comes a time when we meet again
Comes a time of reunion
Comes a place, comes a place where we meet again
Comes a place of communion
Comes a time, comes a time when we love again
Comes a time of affection
Comes a place, comes a place where we live again
Comes a place of attraction
Realize the grace
Realize the beauty now
Echoes from the past
Passion to embrace
Movements
COME AND FOLLOW
Follow me, take my hand
Don‘t look back, just trust my way
Follow me, leave this place
I will take you far away
Watch my shades: familiar shape
with sweetest taste of the unknown
Bite into tender doom
Worship and adore my throne
Beautiful but treacherous
Rotten to the bone
Serpentine but sensual
A queen of hearts dethroned
Now you love, now you know:
adoration brings the light
Idolize, now you‘re lost
I take you to the other side
Beautiful but treacherous
Rotten to the bone
Serpentine but sensual
A queen of hearts dethroned
Come on follow me into the darkness
Come and follow me, follow my love
Come on follow me, beauty is transforming
Come on follow me into the dark
FRIENDS ARE FALLING
Open your arms after closing your thinking for ages
Missing the trust that you lost on your way to the stars
Fighting the hating has taught you to hate for ages
Remind you your mission was based on a vision of love
Open your mind to the memory of love and affection
Missing your friends who vanished while you‘ve been
away
Yearning for turning to someone so close and familiar
Remind you your mission was based on a vision of faith
Falling, friends are falling
Falling and lost in a vision of trust
Falling but lost in my vision of trust
Open your heart to some gratitude,
kindness and friendship
Empathy melting the ice that‘s enclosing your soul
Yearning for turning to someone so close and devoted
Remind you your mission was based on a vision of trust
Falling, friends are falling
Falling and lost in a vision of trust
A vision of love and a vision of trust
Open your heart after closing your spirit for ages
Missing the feelings you lost on your way to the stars
Fighting the hating has taught you to hate for ages
Remind you your mission was based on a vision of love
Falling, friends are falling
Falling but lost in a vision of trust
My vision of faith and my vision of trust
Falling but lost in my vision of trust
Falling for ages, falling from the stars
FIRE! FIRE! (Death Of A Giant)
Facing the past, deeply crooked for ages
Annual rings of a life, witnessing hope
Murder and death, lovers and birth, closely entwined
The battle of darkness and light, observer of life
Here on the hill, bound in hostile surroundings
Cracks in the bleeding wood: scars and remains
Here all alone, shelter and symbol of freedom:
a giant, so massive and old: gentle but strong
Tearing down to the ground
Burning heat, smoking coal
Fire! Fire!
Burning down to the ground
Timber heart, holy wood
Fire! Fire!
Facing the day, changing the soul of perception
Father of life, father of fire and death
Cold is the night , warm is the shine of the torch
Now and forever: deep is the heart of the flame
Tearing down to the ground
Burning heat, smoking coal
Fire! Fire!
Burning down to the ground
Timber heart, holy wood
Fire! Fire!
FELLOW PEACEMAKERS
Will she find, will she find, will she find?
Withered blossoms falling down to earth
All she left alone
Nothing else than footprints of the years
before they reached her home
Will she find, will she find, will she find?
Looking back: she missed her final choice
Mandatory hate
Where’s the place? Now listening to her heart
Hope it‘s not too late
Start a new world, so far up above
Waiting to return
Gathering the troops of heart and soul
Sowing seeds of love
And she will find her way!
Will she find, will she find, will she find?
Will she find, will she find, will she find:
fellow peacemakers?
She will find, she will find, she will find:
fellow peacemakers!
We will find, we will find, we will find:
fellow peacemakers!
Black Space Riders Live
