Rick Shaffer – “Pleasure” (from Rites & Stories)
A raw and hypnotic cut from an album that lives on the edge

Veteran guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist Rick Shaffer returns with his thirteenth solo album Rites & Stories—a sprawling and fearless record that continues the sonic journey he has been carving over the years. Known for his unfiltered garage-blues roots and a deep love of gritty rock minimalism, Shaffer once again pushes boundaries with an album that fuses the primal with the experimental. Among the standout tracks on this release is “Pleasure,” a menacing mid-tempo storm that captures the very heart of the album’s atmosphere.

The Album Concept
Rites & Stories carries a dual focus. The “Rites” reflect Shaffer’s ongoing exploration of raw guitar tones, atmospheric layers, and stripped-back rhythmic assault. It’s music born of instinct—performed as much as it is conjured. The “Stories,” on the other hand, provide the lyrical backbone, offering narratives full of decadence, bad decisions, existential doubt, and the human drive toward both destruction and redemption.

The record as a whole leans into the Berlin-period influence of Iggy Pop and David Bowie, but filters that legacy through Shaffer’s own brand of proto-garage urgency. Across ten tracks, the album hits like a fever dream: part psychedelic atmosphere, part snarling rock and roll.

A Deep Dive into “Pleasure”
“Pleasure” emerges as one of the darker, more hypnotic tracks on the album. Driven by a steady, mid-tempo beat, the song wastes no time setting its tone. Jagged guitar riffs cut through the mix, laced with a glassy, almost eerie shimmer that haunts every bar. There is a tension here—restless, slightly dangerous—that never quite resolves, keeping the listener suspended.

Thematically, “Pleasure” digs into temptation and consequence. It evokes that moment where indulgence blurs into regret, where late-night thrills collide with the sobering reality of what follows. While the lyrics themselves are minimalistic, the delivery is everything: Shaffer’s voice, soaked in grit and urgency, feels desperate yet controlled, like someone confessing through clenched teeth.
His vocal approach is striking. There’s a primal quality to it, a raspy immediacy that makes every word feel carved out of emotion. It’s easy to imagine “Pleasure” being performed in a dimly lit club, the floor sticky, the amps humming, as the singer leans into the mic with absolute intensity.

Sound and Atmosphere
One of the strengths of “Pleasure” is how it balances chaos and space. While the guitar lines are fragmented and abrasive, they are carefully placed, leaving room for the rhythm section to breathe. The bass line rolls forward like an undertow, while the percussion drives the track with an insistent, unrelenting pulse.

The production keeps everything raw and direct. This isn’t an overproduced rock song; it thrives on texture and imperfections, creating an atmosphere that feels both intimate and dangerous. It’s the kind of track that pulls you inward even as it pushes forward.

How It Fits in Rites & Stories
Where tracks like “Standing In The Shadow” and “Run To It” surge forward with sharper riffs and a sense of urgency, “Pleasure” sits in the darker center of the album. Along with songs like “True Religion” and “Dark Disguise,” it shapes the moody, introspective midsection of the record. These tracks explore the aftermath of decisions—the hangover after the high, the whispered self-reflection after the chaos.

By the time the album transitions into the more percussive attack of “Pressure Point” and “Get It Wrong,” “Pleasure” has already left its mark: an uneasy shadow that lingers long after it ends.

Final Thoughts
With “Pleasure,” Rick Shaffer once again proves why his music resonates with those who crave something more from modern rock—a willingness to experiment while staying connected to the raw nerve of the genre. It’s a track that brims with emotion, texture, and a dangerous edge.

For listeners who enjoy gritty proto-garage rock with a hypnotic twist, “Pleasure” is essential. It’s not polished, it’s not safe—and that’s exactly why it works.

∎  Artist Rack, July 30, 2025

Rick Shaffer’s “Rites & Stories”: A Masterpiece of Proto-Garage Rock Rituals and Shadowed Narratives

With Rites & Stories, guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist Rick Shaffer steps deeper into the primal landscape he has cultivated across more than a decade of solo work. The founding member of The Reds returns with his thirteenth album, one that continues his fascination with the Berlin-period rawness of Iggy Pop and David Bowie, yet refuses to simply imitate. Instead, Shaffer assembles a sound world that feels both ancient and futuristic—dense, angular, and utterly uncompromising.

The record opens with Standing in the Shadow, a track that immediately sets the tone with sharp riffs and ghostly echoes that seem to linger just outside of reach. There’s a strange duality at play: the song surges with momentum, yet it is layered in a shimmering haze that keeps it elusive, almost spiritual. That tension—between clarity and murk, force and atmosphere—becomes the guiding principle of the album.

It carries directly into True Religion, which slows the pace but sharpens the focus. Shaffer trades urgency for atmosphere here, letting jagged guitars shimmer against a glassy backdrop. The effect is both menacing and hypnotic, a kind of controlled burn that smolders with aggression beneath the surface. His voice, gritty and confessional, cuts through the haze like someone delivering a sermon at the edge of collapse.

By the time Walks Behind You arrives, the ritualistic qualities of the record have taken root. Its formidable riffs push forward with relentless intent, but the echoes that trail behind give it a haunted quality, as though the song itself is being pursued. Shaffer has a gift for turning riffs into landscapes, and here the guitar work doesn’t just propel the song—it paints the sense of paranoia and shadow that its title suggests.

The mood deepens further with Pleasure, one of the album’s most hypnotic and unnerving pieces. A steady, mid-tempo beat grounds the track, while jagged guitar shards slice across the surface, glinting with an eerie shimmer. Shaffer’s lyrics here are sparse but cutting, evoking the eternal collision between indulgence and regret. His voice, raw with grit and urgency, feels almost too close, like a confession whispered through clenched teeth. The effect is spellbinding, a descent into late-night temptation where thrill and consequence blur.

That shadow lingers as the album shifts into Get It Wrong, a tightly wound piece built on ominous bass lines and razor-sharp guitar treatments. Fragmented and psychedelic, it thrives in its restlessness, refusing easy resolution. Shaffer embraces imperfection here, using distortion and twisted loops to create an intensity that feels ritualistic—repetition not as monotony, but as invocation.

The density continues with Dark Disguise, a song that builds atmosphere gradually. Its jangling guitars weave a trance-like pattern while the sparse vocals leave space for the instrumentation to dominate. Brooding bass lines and slow, pulsing rhythms lend the track a weight that feels subterranean. It’s as if Shaffer is deliberately pulling the listener further underground, deeper into the cavern where the rites are performed.

With Pressure Point, the percussion takes center stage. Cavernous and unrelenting, the beats lock in with fractured guitar treatments, creating an almost psychedelic intensity. This is where the record’s ritualistic theme becomes most palpable; the repetition feels ceremonial, the sonic textures both unsettling and intoxicating. The momentum is undeniable, and by the time it eases into Run To It, the listener is already too far inside the sound to turn away.

That track sharpens the focus again, leaning heavily on riffs that cut like blades through reverberating shadows. Urgency returns in full force, the vocals commanding and raw, driving the song forward like a chase in the dead of night. There’s a primal energy here that recalls the raw power of Iggy Pop, but Shaffer’s delivery carries its own distinctive texture—weathered, desperate, and unflinchingly alive.

The same restless energy surges through Cry For Justice, one of the album’s most emotionally potent moments. The guitars scream with sharp intensity, drenched in cavernous echoes, while the lyrics strike with immediacy. It feels less like a song and more like a demand, a rallying cry delivered from within the shadows. Shaffer’s voice, raw and commanding, becomes the perfect conduit for that plea, embodying both desperation and resolve.

As the album draws to a close, Slow Days offers a shift in trajectory. The pace is more reflective, the guitars twisting into unexpected shapes, creating intrigue rather than assault. Shaffer’s vocals take on new nuance here, shaping the lyrics with tonal creativity that reveals his depth as a performer. It feels like the afterglow of the storm—a moment of contemplation after the relentless sonic barrage, leaving the listener suspended rather than resolved.

What makes Rites & Stories so compelling is the consistency of its immersive world. Every track feels as though it belongs to the same ritual, yet each offers its own variation, its own story. Shaffer’s production values grit over gloss, letting the imperfections serve as part of the fabric rather than something to be scrubbed away. His guitar treatments become atmospheres, his rhythms become ceremonies, and his voice becomes the unrelenting narrator leading us through the shadows.

Lyrically, the album circles themes of decadence, temptation, mortality, and regret. Yet it never romanticizes these subjects. Instead, Shaffer presents them raw and unfiltered, with the honesty of someone who has lived through the chaos rather than merely admired it from afar. This is not nostalgia for rock’s darker past; it is a continuation of it, a reminder that those energies remain alive, still pulsing, still demanding to be heard.

With his thirteenth solo album, Rick Shaffer has proven once again that proto-garage rock is not simply a sound to be revived, but a force to be endured. Rites & Stories out via Tarock Music, is not about retelling the past—it is about surviving it, reshaping it, and letting its echoes bleed into the present. The rites may be unsteady, the stories fragmented, but the music is defiantly alive: dense, dangerous, and unflinchingly human.

∎ Rick Jamm, Jamsphere, The Independent Music Magazine, August 20, 2025

Rites & Stories by Rick Shaffer

Track listing: Standing in the Shadow, True Religion, Walks Behind You, Pleasure, Get It Wrong, Dark Disguise, Pressure Point, Run To It, Cry For Justice, Slow Days

Rick Shaffer has dropped the grittiest, edgiest album of his career. Rites & Stories is Shaffer’s thirteenth full-length, saturated with the vibe of a 3-way argument among Waits, Morrison, and Iggy Pop. Part Punk, part 120 Minutes-era Alternative, Rites & Stories smells of gasoline and cigarettes, tastes black-coffee bitter, and radiates a searing mid-summer desert heat. Close your eyes, listen, and you’ll see a highway mirage rising from the scalding asphalt.

On my first listen, the word “sharp” kept coming to mind. Then I read in Shaffer’s bio “a dense cutting edge of angular songs, fragmented guitars, atmospheric passages.” That’s exactly it! No sonic surface gets cleaned and polished throughout Rites & Stories. Flangers, slides, and reverb unite to forge guitar tones that cut into your ears. When the vocals aren’t purposely distorted, there’s still a straining–Shaffer offering every ounce of his being as he guts out the verses of “Pleasure.”

Shaffer says of the track that it’s “an Iggy Pop ‘The Idiot’ inspired rocker, with great hooks and atmospheric guitar work–a dark rocker existing in a postmodern form…a 70’s manifesto, but pushes further strong rhythmic undercurrents that sound enthralling. A menacing swagger delivered with aggressive precision.” A video is in the works–keep an eye out for it. We’ll share it as soon as it sees the light of day

As a whole, Rites & Stories is at-once a late-80s Midnight Oil tinge melded with the ambient/echo-y overtones of 60s Surf. Thick reverb, booming toms, bright heavy cymbals, and layers of guitar washing down over it all. It’s an album you need to wear in order to appreciate. Listen intently. Let it seep into your soul and you’ll begin to experience it, taste it. Hell, you may even start to smell the sweat and attitude that when into its creation.

∎ Wiley Koepp, Coyote Music, Austin, Texas, August 8, 2025

Rick Shaffer, guitarist and founding member of The Reds, has released his thirteenth solo album, Rites & Stories, expanding his fascination with proto-garage rock and post-glam atmospherics.

Picking up where 2023’s Sleeping Dog left off, the new album deepens his exploration of the Berlin-period palette pioneered by Bowie and Iggy Pop. Instead of a stylistic detour, Shaffer frames Rites & Stories as both an evolution and a consolidation, channeling raw urgency through layered guitar treatments and fragmented narratives.

The single Pleasure serves as a key entry point into the record’s broader tone. With mid-tempo pacing and jagged guitar lines, the track leans into confrontation rather than catharsis. Lyrically, it circles around themes of indulgence, consequence, and the fleeting nature of desire. Shaffer’s voice is a central force, delivered with grainy intensity and lived-in conviction, echoing the shadowy charisma of Morrison and the volatile charge of early Iggy.

Across the album, Shaffer assembles a sonic landscape where menace and momentum often blur. Tracks like Cry For Justice and Standing In The Shadow are driven by sharp, echo-drenched riffs and cavernous percussion, while True Religion and Dark Disguise operate in a more controlled burn, favoring atmosphere and weight over speed. The guitar work remains central throughout, often shifting between tightly coiled phrases and fuzz-soaked washes that pull the listener into a dense, murky space.

There is a ritualistic quality to Rites & Stories, hinted at in the title and cemented by the consistent, immersive tone. Shaffer’s production prioritizes texture over polish, allowing the imperfections to become part of the experience. Get It Wrong and Pressure Point push this ethos further, marrying tight rhythmic structures with unsettling guitar treatments and ominous bass undertones.

While it draws on a familiar lineage, Rites & Stories resists easy nostalgia. Instead, it takes the raw materials of garage rock and rebuilds them into something darker, more weathered, and steeped in reflection. For Shaffer, this isn’t about revival but endurance. The stories are fragmented, the rites unsteady, but the music remains defiantly alive.

■ Andrea Caccese, The Bandcamp Diaries, Rome, Italy, August 3, 2025

Rick Shaffer just released his latest album, Rites and Stories, which holds ten songs that will take you to a grunge rock concert, where you would want to lose yourself in an atmosphere that is gritty and full of tension.

Rick Shaffer is a well-established artist, known for his music career as a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is also the founding member of the Philadelphia-based band, The Reds. His music and recordings are critically acclaimed, having worked in both the film and music industries.

The whole album carries the same mood– it has a ritualistic feel that makes you feel like you are at extremes, but in the best way possible. The guitar work is mean and gritty, the drums throw beats that urge something primal, and the vocals are deeply emotive and echo in the space created by the songs. The storytelling in the album feels like it’s in fragments. It gives you pieces of a puzzle, and leaves it to you to form a whole picture.

Pleasure is a track at the heart of the album, with an unflinching energy that lets you sink into the album. The guitar work is shimmering, and Shaffer’s vocals are deep and raspy, truly creating a mood for you to let yourself lose and let the song surround you.

True Religion is a track that enters with unapologetic energy, and you can’t help but let the tension of the track wash all over you. It’s distorted, but at the same time has an ethereal quality because of the atmosphere that the guitar work creates. The song also has an underlying aggression that makes the track emotionally rich.

Dark Disguise also plays out much like True Religion, but it takes time to build its atmosphere. The jangling guitars sound like being played to put you in a trance. The song feels like it is being played live, letting the instrumentation take centre stage. The lyrics in this track are pretty sparse, giving time for the instrumentation to shine truly. Like True Religion, this track is also very ethereal. It is rhythmic, and the bass broods, giving the track depth.

Pressure Point is a tight, rhythmic track that has a very psychedelic quality. It’s fragmented, yet a very well-rounded track, using loops and distortions to create the intensity. All the songs in the album are intense and open a world of their own. It’s not for the light-hearted, but it’s for the people who want to be moved and amazed by the power of good music.

You can listen to the album ‘Rites & Stories’ by Rick Shaffer on popular platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music. To know more about him, you can visit his website, ‘www.tarockmusic.com/rick_shaffer/’

∎ Bowe, Good Music Radar, The Netherlands, August 4, 2025

Featured Album: Artist Rick Shaffer’s ‘Rites & Stories’

Jukebox Time is featuring the latest album by artist Rick Shaffer titled Rites & Stories today. Known for his raw and riveting songs, the artist is back with another sensational collection of 10 tracks. Pleasure is a superb song with a retro rock arrangement that evokes nostalgia and transports the listener into a different zone. The guitars are dazzling, with tones that stir memories from the psyche.

Standing In The Shadow song has a peppy and ethereal vibe. Its tonality is refreshing, with vocal overtones that craft a mesmerizing atmosphere, resulting in a moodiness that’s hard to define. The lyricism is powerful—simple yet blending seamlessly with the arrangement. Slow Days takes a creative trajectory and shifts the album into a different realm. The guitars create an intrigue not heard elsewhere in the album. The vocals hold the key, with creative nuances by Rick Shaffer that give the lyrics tone and character, showcasing his artistry.

Overall, we were impressed by this album and highly recommend it to our readers and fellow music lovers. It is now streaming on Spotify.

∎ Jukebox Time, August 4, 2025

About the artist: Studio work for Rick Shaffer, throughout the 1980-90’s, includes recording guitar tracks on a Marianne Faithfull album (Island); Hilly Kristal’s, “Mad Mordechai” (Stereo Society); Peter Murphy’s, “Holy Smoke” (Beggars Banquet/BMG); and Marc Almond’s, “Fantastic Star” (Some Bizarre/Mercury); writing/recording the score of director, Michael Mann’s films, ”Band Of The Hand” and “Manhunter” (both on MCA Records), as well as writing, producing and recording, “Looking For Right,” for Mann’s film, “Collateral.”

Review of Rick Shaffer’s New Rock Album ‘Rites & Stories’

Recently, we came across Rick Shaffer’s new rock album ‘Rites & Stories’, and loved it! The album is Rick’s 13th solo release, an dropped on July 25th (2025). Once you hit play, you’ll hear his authentic, raw, grungy sound. In an age where computer’s and AI are taking over the music industry, Rick Shaffer is fighting back with his gritty original sound.

Highlighted Track: ‘Pleasure’
‘Pleasure’ stands as a core emotional anchor for the album, a mid-tempo cut propelled by a steady beat and jagged, shimmering guitar. Its lyrics explore indulgence and consequence, and the song leans more into confrontation than catharsis. It’s hypnotic, darkly magnetic, and a prime entry point into Shaffer’s world on Rites & Stories.

As the title would suggest, the album features raw emotions as part of the Rites, and strong narrative in the Stories, bringing them together seamlessly. This album continues Rick Shaffer’s Berlin Period, evoking inspiration from the likes of Iggy Pop and David Bowie. A continuation of the previous ‘Sleeping Dog’ album.

∎ Nick Galien, Muzic Notez Magazine, August 8, 2025

Rick Shaffer Navigates the Darkness on “Rites and Stories” – A Proto-Garage Tour De Force That Bleeds Raw Emotion

Rick Shaffer once again emerges from the shadows with raw authenticity on Rites and Stories, his thirteenth solo offering that serves as both artistic evolution and primal scream. The guitarist, songwriter, and founding member of The Reds has crafted an album that doesn’t merely reference the Berlin Period production aesthetics of Iggy Pop and David Bowie—it inhabits them, breathing new life into the angular, atmospheric territory he first explored on his previous release Sleeping Dog.

This is not music for the faint-hearted. Rites and Stories is a dense, cutting-edge exploration of fragmented guitars, atmospheric passages, and narratives that emerge from what Shaffer describes as the survivors scattered on Jim Morrison’s Dawn’s Highway. It’s a sonic landscape where menace and momentum blur into something altogether more profound—a ritualistic journey through the darker corners of human experience.

The album’s title reveals its dual nature with surgical precision. The “Rites” element draws from Shaffer’s influences and beliefs, incorporating atmospheric textures and guitar treatments into a proto-garage assault that creates a uniquely immersive sonic environment. Meanwhile, the “Stories” aspect provides the narratives that reinforce deep introspection, menacing situations, and late-night hedonistic imagery. As both lyricist and vocalist, Shaffer tackles challenging material—decadence, drugs, bad decisions, and mortality—with a vocal tone that is simultaneously desperate, passionate, and compelling.

Standing in the Shadow opens the album with a peppy yet ethereal quality that immediately establishes the record’s complex emotional terrain. The track’s refreshing tonality, enhanced by mesmerizing vocal overtones, creates an indefinable moodiness where powerful lyricism blends seamlessly with the arrangement. It’s followed by True Religion, a track that enters with unapologetic energy and tension that washes over the listener like a distorted prayer. The ethereal atmosphere created by the guitar work provides an underlying aggression that makes the track emotionally rich and texturally complex.

Walks Behind You continues the sharp-edged assault with formidable riffs and ghostly echoes that develop and strengthen the album’s sonic innovation. The track inhabits that psychedelic hard proto-garage sound that Shaffer has made his signature, delivering edgy, unsettling performances that keep listeners suspended in a state of beautiful unease.

At the album’s dark heart lies Pleasure, one of the most hypnotic and dangerous tracks in Shaffer’s catalog. Driven by a steady, mid-tempo beat, the song wastes no time establishing its menacing tone. Jagged guitar riffs cut through the mix with a glassy, almost eerie shimmer that haunts every bar. The track explores temptation and consequence—that moment where indulgence blurs into regret, where late-night thrills collide with sobering reality. Shaffer’s vocal delivery is everything here: his voice, soaked in grit and urgency, feels desperate yet controlled, like someone confessing through clenched teeth in a dimly lit confession booth.

Get it Wrong shifts the album into more percussive territory, featuring tight, twisted razor-sharp guitars and ominous bass lines in a relentless attack. The track exemplifies Shaffer’s production philosophy, which prioritizes texture over polish, allowing imperfections to become part of the experience. This ethos continues through Dark Disguise, another controlled burn that takes time to build its atmosphere. The jangling guitars sound like they’re played to induce a trance, with sparse lyrics giving the instrumentation center stage. Like True Religion, this track achieves an ethereal quality through rhythmic precision and brooding bass that adds remarkable depth.

Pressure Point emerges as a tight, rhythmic track with distinctly psychedelic qualities. It’s fragmented yet well-rounded, using loops and distortions to create intensity that feels both calculated and spontaneous. The cavernous percussive beats marry perfectly with unsettling guitar treatments and ominous bass undertones, creating what Shaffer describes as “tight twisted razor-sharp” sonic architecture.

Run To It maintains the album’s sharp-edged momentum with formidable riffs and ghostly echoes, while Cry For Justice delivers echo-drenched riffs driven by cavernous percussion. Both tracks contribute to the album’s sonic innovation, inhabiting that psychedelic hard proto-garage sound that makes Rites and Stories such a compelling listen.

The album reaches its creative apex with Slow Days, a closer that takes the collection into entirely different territory. The guitars create intrigue not heard elsewhere on the record, while Shaffer’s vocals hold the key through creative nuances that give the lyrics tone and character, showcasing his artistry in its fullest expression. It’s a track that demonstrates how Shaffer can shift the album’s trajectory while maintaining its essential DNA.

Throughout Rites and Stories, Shaffer’s vocal approach remains striking. There’s a primal quality—a raspy immediacy that makes every word feel carved from pure emotion. His voice lives in the tradition of Iggy Pop and Jim Morrison, but with a distinctive quality of texture, raw unfiltered grit that is entirely his own. You can imagine these songs performed in dimly lit clubs, the floor sticky, amps humming, as the singer leans into the microphone with absolute intensity.

What makes Rites and Stories particularly compelling is how it resists easy nostalgia. While it clearly draws from a familiar lineage, Shaffer takes the raw materials of garage rock and rebuilds them into something darker, more weathered, and steeped in reflection. This isn’t about revival—it’s about endurance. The stories are fragmented, the rites unsteady, but the music remains defiantly alive.

The production maintains the Berlin Period sound that Shaffer has been exploring, but pushes it further into atmospheric territory. There’s a ritualistic quality to the entire experience, hinted at in the title and cemented by the consistent, immersive tone. Every track opens its own world, creating intensity that isn’t for the light-hearted but rewards those who want to be moved and amazed by the power of genuinely transformative music.

Rites and Stories released via Tarock Music bleeds emotion and excitement from every groove. It’s an album that demands attention, rewards deep listening, and confirms Rick Shaffer’s position as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary proto-garage rock. In a musical landscape often dominated by surface-level concerns, Shaffer has created something that cuts straight to the bone—thirteen tracks of raw, uncompromising artistry that transform darkness into illumination.

∎ Peter Burns, Review Indie, August 20, 2025

ALBUM REVIEWS ↓

Rick Shaffer’s “Rites and Stories”: A Primal Journey on Jim Morrison’s Dawn’s Highway

In a modern musical scenario often saturated with synthetic polish, the raw, unfiltered grit of Rick Shaffer stands as a defiant and captivating force. The veteran guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist, and founding member of the legendary band The Reds, returns with his thirteenth solo album, Rites and Stories. A compelling continuation of the sonic exploration he began on his previous release Sleeping Dog, this new work plunges even deeper into the “Berlin Period” production sound of Iggy Pop and David Bowie, forging a dense, angular, and ultimately hypnotic proto-garage rock masterpiece.

The album’s title is an immediate invitation into its dual nature. The “Rites” are the foundational elements of Shaffer’s sound—the visceral, almost ritualistic practice of creating atmospheric textures and guitar treatments that lay a unique sonic bedrock. The “Stories,” meanwhile, are the narratives that rise from this environment: tales of late-night hedonism, menacing situations, and the deep introspection that follows bad decisions. Shaffer’s vocal delivery is the vessel for these stories, a desperate and passionate tone that channels the primal energy of Iggy Pop and Jim Morrison, yet possesses a distinct quality of its own—raw and compelling. This is an album for the survivors, the figures scattered on Jim Morrison’s “Dawn’s Highway,” rocking hard and laying down a power that is both hypnotic and relentless.

The journey begins with Standing in the Shadow, a track that immediately establishes the album’s sharp, formidable sound. It’s a song with a peppy, ethereal vibe, where ghostly echoes and vocal overtones create a moodiness that is at once mesmerizing and difficult to define. The lyricism is powerful, simple yet blending seamlessly with the arrangement to set the stage for the sonic innovations to come.

Next is True Religion, which enters with unapologetic energy. A distorted but ethereal quality washes over you as the jagged guitars create a captivating atmosphere. There’s an underlying aggression that makes the track emotionally rich, a controlled burn that favors mood and weight over sheer speed. This is a song that lets you feel the tension, a testament to Shaffer’s ability to craft complex emotional landscapes within a lean, proto-garage framework.

Walks Behind You follows, a formidable track that further strengthens the album’s sonic identity. Driven by sharp riffs and a cavernous percussive beat, it carries a sense of forward momentum while being steeped in a dark, echo-drenched atmosphere. It’s a journey into the murkier corners of the human psyche, where every beat and every guitar chord feels deliberate and unsettling.

One of the album’s emotional anchors is Pleasure. A darker, more hypnotic track, it is propelled by a steady, mid-tempo beat. Jagged guitar riffs cut through the mix with a glassy, eerie shimmer, creating a tension that never quite resolves. The song digs into the themes of temptation and consequence, evoking that moment where indulgence blurs into regret. Shaffer’s voice, soaked in grit, feels desperate yet controlled, like a secret confession whispered through clenched teeth. It’s a track that leaves an uneasy shadow, lingering long after it ends.

Get it Wrong pushes the album’s rhythmic ethos to a new level. The song is a relentless attack of tight, twisted, razor-sharp guitars and ominous bass lines. Its cavernous percussive beats and fragmented intensity make it feel both chaotic and well-rounded, a prime example of Shaffer’s production approach that values texture over polish, allowing the imperfections to become part of the experience.

The mid-tempo aggression continues with Dark Disguise, a track that builds its atmosphere with patient, almost trance-like jangling guitars. Like True Religion, it has an ethereal quality, but it feels more like a live performance, with the sparse lyrics giving the instrumentation room to truly shine. The bass line broods beneath the surface, giving the track a depth that is both rhythmic and deeply felt.

Pressure Point is a tight, rhythmic, and intensely psychedelic track. It utilizes loops and distortions to build a world of its own, an unsettling and edgy performance that showcases the album’s raw emotional core. This is not for the light-hearted; it’s for those who want to be moved and amazed by the power of unfiltered, good music.

The album’s sharp sound returns on Run To It. Like Standing in the Shadow, it’s driven by sharp riffs and a palpable sense of urgency. The track surges forward, propelled by its formidable guitar work and a relentless, driving beat, embodying the defiant spirit of the album.

Cry For Justice is another standout with a sharp sound. Its echo-drenched riffs and cavernous percussion create an expansive, formidable landscape. It’s a track that develops and strengthens the sonic innovation of the album, pushing the boundaries of proto-garage rock into a more atmospheric and reflective space.

The album closes with Slow Days, a song that takes a creative trajectory and shifts the album into a different realm. The guitars create an intrigue not heard elsewhere, and Shaffer’s vocals, with their creative nuances, hold the key to the track’s character. It’s a masterclass in artistry, a song that showcases the quiet intensity and deliberate construction that underpins the entire album.

Rites and Stories out via Tarock Music is not about nostalgia. It’s a work of endurance, taking the raw materials of proto-garage rock and rebuilding them into something darker, more weathered, and steeped in reflection. Rick Shaffer remains defiantly alive, and on this album, his “stories” are fragmented, and his “rites” are unsteady, but the music itself bleeds with emotion, excitement, and the undeniable power of an artist at the peak of his craft.

■ Robbie Tee, Independent Music News24, August 19, 2025