New rock band Nerve Star’s White Hot album is out now, alongside a recent bout of singles. Earlier this year ‘Black Ice‘ (A side) / ‘The Harder The Better‘ (B side) was released featuring tracks off the album, and now an Astral DJ edit of ‘Space Ritual‘ is out now. This shorter length single is a standalone track, with the full length version being available on the new album.
Originally recorded by Spanish band Warlock, Nerve Star said of ‘Space Ritual‘: “The favourite track for many of our fans. Starts off in a swirling riffing opening, that breaks into a deep ‘Highway Star‘ (Deep Purple) type driving riff with some great wah solos and a spacey feedback finish. Great vocals from Matt.”
Nerve Star began back in 2021, they played ’70s classic hard rock, ’80s heavy metal by way of the NWOHM and a little punk got thrown in the mix. Their lineup adapted, bringing in members from far afield and that alongside the covid shutdown meant rehearsing side by side wasn’t possible. Despite which, they started home demoing ten songs.
By 2023, they established the lineup of Joss Thorley (bass) from Manchester, Maidenhead’s Chris Billinghurst (guitars), vocalist Matt Oakman from the south of England, and from further afield another guitarist in Janne Stark whose credits list him recording with several bands and producing them too, notably working with the Sweden Rock All Star Band, who also recommended Peter ‘Trumpeter’ Svensson who now plays drums and percussion with the band.
In Spring 2024, with demos completed, they started full recording sessions with the Swedish part of the group at Stark’s studio, and the British division at RAW Studios in the UK with recording/mixing man Rasmus Bom Andersen (Diamond Head) seeing them through to 2025 and 13 tracks being completed. The record was mastered by Andy ‘Hippy’ Baldwin (Oasis/Blur) at Metropolis, London, the whole thing produced by band manager Mike Dixon (whose own credits stretch as far back as involvement on the Thin Lizzy UK Tour of 1975 and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s one the following year).
However, before they put the record to bed, Nerve Star asked one of their heroes to contribute. Tony Bourge, founding member and guitarist with Welsh heavy metal band Budgie, whose songs have been covered by the likes of Metallica and Van Halen. Fortunately, Bourge had worked with Stark before on several Bandolier Kings albums so a connection had already been made.
The track chosen was one written and recorded by Bourge for his subsequent band Tredegar, ‘Richard III‘. The Nerve Star rendition closes the album as an epic featuring three lead guitarists.
White Hot is available as an eight track vinyl LP, and with 13 tracks on CD and digital/streaming editions, distributed in the UK by RSK Entertainment via Proper Distribution. The band will tour the UK with festival appearances in Europe to follow.
Apart from the two instrumentals (‘Lone Orbit‘ and ‘Cool Calm And Connected‘) written by the two guitarists to showcase their talents, these are covers. Most were developed during covid lockdown years and the band deemed them just too good to discard after things opened up again. They were all selected from obscure sources and apart from three songs (‘Precious Rock‘, ‘Black Ice‘ and ‘Richard III‘) had never been released commercially or in most cases never got past the local band/cassette demo stage. Even ‘Black Ice‘ was a one off NWOBHM single released by a band who then folded and disappeared quickly after.
“It took quite some time to track down the original band members, who were overjoyed and amazed that anyone had remembered them or knew about their demo songs, as they had all been discarded 20 to 30 years earlier,” the band explained. “In fact, the band Skreem who wrote ‘Winner Takes All‘ (my favourite track) was so impressed with our version, that he went looking for other material and found a dusty old tape with ‘Say It To My Face‘ on it, so this opened up another outlet. Songs that would never have seen the light of day or even YouTube! There’s many others that we haven’t tried out yet as we concentrate on new material. That is why our first new song ‘Its The Time‘ has just been recorded for our second album.”
