In The Graveyard

Unknown Passage was Dead Moon's second album, following 1988's In the Graveyard, but as a statement of creative purpose, it was a major step up from the debut, opening with the fierce "Dead Moon Night," whose self-reflexive lyric and lean, unrelenting attack made it sound like the band's theme song. While Unknown Passage appeared less than a year after In the Graveyard, it had been just long enough for Dead Moon's signature sound to fall firmly into place -- Fred Cole's growling guitar riffs and reedy, insistent vocals holding sway over Toody Cole's rich, solid basslines and supportive harmonies, and Andrew Loomis' simple but muscular drumming, as the band lays out a heady combination of garage rock, proto-punk, blues, and early heavy rock. While Dead Moon's lo-fi/D.I.Y. approach to record making is clearly audible in Unknown Passage's no-frills production and monophonic sound mix, as usual this trio made a virtue out of limited resources; the aggressively straightforward audio is a superb match for the urgency of tunes like "54/40," "My Escape," and "Evil Eye," and a ferocious cover of "Time Has Come Today" is the icing on the cake. While much is made of Fred Cole's age (he was born in 1948, making him 41 when this album was first released), the most audible impact on Dead Moon's music has always been that his songs are informed by the music that was punk before punk had a name, from Link Wray to the Sonics to Blue Cheer, and on Unknown Passage you can hear all that history filtered through one man's keen imagination and unyielding passion for real rock & roll, and Unknown Passage is just one of many outstanding albums Dead Moon would release while waiting for the rest of the world to catch up with them. ~ Mark Deming