Saints of Rebellion

...and then it was time for the National act that so many were waiting for Saints Of Rebellion! Now you want talk about a true hard rocking and working band if I ever saw one …Saints Of Rebellion takes a prize for sure. I’ve come to know these guys as personal friends and always enjoy a good melt your face off rocking set by them. Taking the time out of their busy “New American Dream Tour” to Rock The Lot for Make A Wish is exactly what these guys are all about. Coby DeShazo shines through with his amazing vocal capabilities capturing and mesmerizing the crowd while the Guitar Gods smile down on John Adams and the tasty riffs he produces from his axe grinding it all down to the unstoppable Jay Hitaffer on Bass and new comer drummer Anthony Hitaffer. The prodigious duo of the Hitaffer brothers heading up the rhythm section in SOR is the magical choice and well done. The amazing on stage network that SOR has is fascinating to watch. I’ve spoke of bands being more than just musicians playing music before…They are a brotherhood hands down and anytime they come to town I always make plans to see a show…You should too and to keep up on their tour schedule you can hit their Facebook page up as well as the SOR Street Team Page and it would be in your best interest to get a copy of their debut album “New American Dream”…It ROCKS!! - The SoundCheck

Rating – 8 Out Of 10

It’s always great to see the 80′s influenced hard-rockers making a go at the ring 20-years after their relevance has come and gone. That said, this is not a smoke screen to promote the music I love most in this world, it’s simply an FYI for those who still give a shit, which, to my current knowledge, would include every writer on-staff here at Away-Team and quite a few more fans who continue to pay prime prices to go see KISS, Foreigner, Styx and even Whitesnake and a few other hair variety bands who still seem to make a living touring and pimping their wares.

So, with bands like TNT, Tiger Tailz, Danger-Danger and Bulletboys making a run for the stages that will allow them these days, Saints Of Rebellion finds a nice, cozy place in my iTunes library currently based on the strength of Love/Hate inspired tracks like “Gasoline”, “Get You Some”, and “30 And A 5th”. Sliding easily between G’N’R melodic brilliance mixed with modern day HINDER-meets-Black Stone Cherry (two of my FAVORITE bands out these days), the aforementioned “Get You Some” is probably my favorite track of the bunch, but I’m here to tell you, there’s no better album to spin while you’re throwing back a few Buds in the backyard during the neighborhood Barbecue! SOR are pretty cool looking dudes that don’t look like old fucks trying to keep the flag flying, on the contrary, they are pretty young looking dudes with a cool look to them which ups the level a few notches for me to being with.

Stand-out tracks are definitely “Get You Some”, ” Wine, Women And Song”, “30 And A 5th” and “Rise”. The whole album stands head and shoulders above their counterparts like CrashDiet and even Blackberry Smoke. An incredibly solid first effort from a band I think we’ll be hearing a lot about over the coming months. Highly Recommended! - Craig “Bam-Bam” Stegall

While many of you may not remember the Philadelphia based band Tangier, from the late 80’s and early 1990’s, they had a singer by the name of Bill Mattson, who had a powerful, bluesy voice. I will make the comparison of Coby DeShazo to Mattson, which is a huge compliment in my opinion. That is not to say this CD is dated back 25 years ago, quite the contrary, in fact. The variances throughout their recent release, New
American Dream, however, are more than the aforementioned band provided.


New American Dream, the title track, starts us out in a true Rock ‘n’ Roll anthem style. It is a fast-paced tune with blazing guitar, a tight rhythm section and powerful vocals leading the push. New American Dream seemed only a warm up to Gasoline, which had me sitting and banging my head--drawing me in from the first note. Once again, particularly during the solo, the drums and guitar are overpowering, ready to steamroll anything else you’ve had in your ears to that given day. For ballad lovers, Alone is a very bluesy, vocally emotional
song, backed by music that makes you feel the essence, the vibe, the raw feeling of the song. Garden, does not take us back to the fist-pumping, head-banging pace, produced in either of the first two tracks, but rather gives us a good solid Rock song that has a really great beat and is something I believe would get airplay consideration in top 40 radio. Get You Some, is a tale of a woman who seems bent on destruction of her male counterpart (there’s the line “She’s out for blood, Come and get you some”). Wine, Women & Song, gives us that awesome bass leading the way; with great walks prevalent, the drums and bass are as one, the vocals and guitar selling us on another bluesy tune. Wine, Women & Song is definitely a keeper. Matters, keeps us on
track, but kicks back to more of a Pop style Hard Rock. Rise, with its initial catchy guitar tracking, leads us down a path of just an all-out great Rock song with a message of not being held down. 30 and a 5th takes me back to the days of a misspent youth, 30 pack of beer and a 5th. This is the party track on the CD, but it should not be thought of as weak, as the guitar blazes through, particularly through the middle of the song. In the final track Better Days, pay particular attention to the bass work. It is the driving force that leads us to a very happy musical ending.


If I were to give this Saints of Rebellion CD New American Dream a rating on a scale of one to ten, with one being “It’s God awful and never play it in my presence again” and ten being “It’s just so awesome I can’t live without it”, I would give it an eight. My ears enjoyed it a lot and I believe yours will also. So head on out to a show and pick one up while they are on tour. If you can’t do that, you can get it on iTunes or at Best Buy. No
matter how, when, or where, just get it. You’ll be glad you did. - JP Rawk, Ion Indie Magazine

It isn't very often that I am totally taken back by a new artist. We get lots of different CD's and Mp3's sent to us on a weekly basis. To be honest I listen to them all whether it fits the Rockin Metal Revival or not. I have to admit that 90% of them don't make it to the show.


Then out of nowhere I get the latest Saints of Rebellion release "New American Dream". I couldn't believe what was coming out of my speakers! A real dirty, grinding, southern, swamp sounding hard rock release! I hadn't been this pleasantly surprised since Zakk Wylde released Pride and Glory or the first time I was introduced to Black Stone Cherry!
... I could sit here and breakdown the cd cut by cut. I really don't feel the need. "New American Dream is as solid of a release as you're gonna hear! This release has NO FILLER!! Do yourself and your ears a favor and pick up one of the best releases of 2014! - ROCKIN' METAL REVIVAL

In a regular week, Pitriff receives about 50 emails from bands out there that are simply looking for exposure. They are all armed with their tales of concertgoer conquest. They all comes with lists of the greatest bands in the world with whom they've shared the stage. They all have their own story as to why they are the next big thing in the music world...if only Pitriff will be the online publication that puts them on the map with some attention. To be honest, I download about 1 out of every hundred releases that I'm offered this way. The sheer volume of music received from established acts just doesn't allow enough time to discover all these bands; even knowing that I'm probably missing a great one every now and again. Sometimes though, one of those requests pays dividends when I do give it a listen.


Out on the newer small label High Volume Music, Baltimore's Saints Of Rebellion is a basic rock n' roll band that hits the right spots for me, personally. In the largest regard, they seem cut from the exact same cloth that has produced another of my favorites of the moment, Black Stone Cherry. Listening to their album NEW AMERICAN DREAM, they really come across as a more raw version of BSC on a lot of the tracks. Songs like "Get You Some", could probably fit on any BSC album without anyone being convinced it was a different band. Vocalist Coby DeShazo has that sound - that powerful wail that's full bellied and just rawks when he let's it loose. He commands attention on the disc's best song, "Wine, Women and Song". What's interesting about DeShazo is that he has a bit of a modern flair to his sound here and there. His low end vocals sound very much like what works on active rock radio, before blasting on the choruses to deliver what works for actual fans of music.


While DeShazo's similarity to Black Stone Cherry vocalist Chris Robertson is easy to recognize as this band's signature, it's strength is, without question, the guitar work of John Adams. This guy can flat out play...period. His riffs and his solos are extremely strong and memorable, especially for this kind of shitkicker rock/metal. On songs like "Matters", his driving riff almost counterbalances his sweet ass soloing throughout the song. There's moments in this song where the riff feels like an old school arena rock jam, and yet other times when the soloing is fresh and unique to itself. This song also showcases the raw power of the rhythm section. Bassist Jay Hittafer really establishes himself here with some cool soloing.... All in all, this is a band who works extremely well as a unit, and one who have created a killer disc.


PITRIFF RATING - 92/100 - Maybe it's that I just like rockin' out in a dirty bar with a couple shots of Jack, a smoke machine and bands that bring the dirty rock, but whatever it is, this band fits the bill. NEW AMERICAN DREAM is a very cool release that needs to be experienced by those of you that are fans of stuff like Black Stone Cherry or some of Zakk Wylde's non-BLS stuff (solo stuff or Pride & Glory ring a bell). It's modern day southern rock, and it's truly good. - Chris Akin, Pitriff

I wanna buy a Harley Davidson, a bottle of Jack D and grab my woman by the hair... together we'll ride like the wind... we'll stop... drink and I'll take her, bend over the fuel tank... that's how I felt the first time I heard the new CD from Saints of Rebellion - New American Dream.

I had never heard them before, but it 's not going to be a one-night stand ...The CD takes off with two slaps in your face and a kick to the balls ... well meant . New American Dream which is the starting number is raw, dirty and delicious rock ...

Hard Rock the Southern way . A mixture of Black Label Society and Cult rips of your Sunday School clothes and leaves you only wearing leather pants, long hair and snakeskin boots, playing air guitar ... can't help it .. not a bad start, especially when you do not expect anything special.


10 tracks and 40 minutes later you'll find yourself pressing start again .... and again .... just want more . The cigarette lighter song " Alone" starts with a Hammond B3 and piano and then something G'n'R rouhness ... then quiet singing , while the lighter gets hotter and hotter and you're rocking your head hard, for though it is a quiet ... relatively quiet song ... it's definitely not boring. There is so much power in the lead vocals that there is a savage battle between the guitar and the vocal about who has the most rocking sound ... that's the punch line through the whole CD .

The production itself is incredible successful and the musicians are accomplished and the interaction between them is perfect ... It's a perfect CD that only deserves kneefall from me. - Skrevet af Lars Frosz Nielsen, Calles Rock Corner