Greetings one and all, this is the mad metal monk the "Ancient One" and I bid you welcome to the Metal Temple. Though my bones are old, they are invigorated by my love of Metal, which drives me to ride the sonic sound waves and share what I find with you. On one of my past journeys into the sound wave, I had the pleasure of finding a Doomaphonic Power Trio describing themselves as "3 Rock 'N' Roll Sabbath worshiping dudes based out of Los Angeles, California", who are called THE RARE BREED.

THE RARE BREED made its 1^st appearance on Bandcamp sometime in October 2015 with their S/T "The Rare Breed" EP with the tracks: "Mountain of Dreams", "Under the Shadows of the Sun", "Visions", and "Witches Lore", followed by the release of the single, "The Stranger", in May 2016 in preparation for their debut album, "Looking For Today", in Sept 2016. Soon after the band gained a positive review on the indie music webzine, Desert Psychlist, that caught my attention. Unfortunately I failed to buy the album. Alas, this happens from time to time when you listen to a great deal of music. That's why I am pleased they have re-released their album on Ripple Music.

Playing what I describe as a mix of swinging fuzzy metal, heavily influenced by Ozzy era BLACK SABBATH, DIAMOND HEAD, TYPE O NEGATIVE, and UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS, with dark themed lyrics, I found "Looking For Today" impossible to not like. If I have any misgiving, it's the fact the debut album is a combination of new tracks and the S/T EP.  Yet I enjoyed the new take a classic sound overall, I would rate "Looking For Today" a solid 7, as the music seems to have been perfectly arranged and is filled with those classic soaring guitars and chug-a-chug-a-buzz-fuzz sound I that gets me off. My favorites from "Looking for Today" and the one I did not care for:

"Funeral Pyre"(Intro)/"The Stranger": I'm calling these two songs 1 because  they fit together perfectly. The Creepy guitar intro of "Funeral Pyre" acts as a bridge that gets the listener ready for the haunted vocals of Oscar De la Torre with the call and answer riffs played on his guitar between he an Joey Castle on bass that go into soaring guitar leads of "The Stranger". While THE RARE BREED may have definite influences, these songs prove they are not clones

"Rusted Diamond": Drummer Hernan Rojas; man you got the swing. I definitely loved the vocals, guitar, and bass in this song that had a UNCLE ACID flavor but the drums made it. If I were at a show, I would expect this song to lead in with or close with a drum solo."Echo From the Sun": I do not want to be cruel to THE RARE BREED; this song was played well. Yet it felt like I was listening to SUPERNAUT. However, this doesn't mean I will not listen it. Wanting to know a bit about the band's future plans and the albums initial release, I contacted THE RARE BREED and did a short impromptu interview with the bassist Joey Castle via PM.

AO: Hey all this is Mikal AKA: The Ancient One I'm reviewing your album of your re-release of your 2016 album "Looking for Today" on Ripple Music. Loved it by the way. I'm reviewing for Metal Temple.

JC: Hell yeah, thanks. If you need anything let us know. Appreciate it.

AO: I was wondering if there was anything special you'd like fans to know about your band. Oh, are you planning a new album soon, as well?

JC: Yeah man, currently working on it; hopefully early next year we'll have a new album out.

AO: Now, was your recent venture with Ripple prep to gain a bit more publicity for your bands next album?

JC: Yeah. We got a two-album deal with them and love the bands they have on their roster. They can definitely help take us further and reach to areas where we probably couldn't on our own as easy. Were getting great feedback overseas and a lot of that is thanks to them?

AO: When I first heard a part of your album in 2016, I definitely heard that SABBATH swing element your band has been tagged with; are there any other musical elements your band wants to experiment with?

JC:  It just happened; we didn't go out to sound like SABBATH necessarily, but its deep in our musical DNA. We definitely want to bring fresh ideas to our writing. We love SABBATH but we want to be our own too.

AO: You definitely have an original sound. My last question is about the album cover art; who is the artist for the new art?

JC:  The original one from 2016 was done by David Seymour; just an idea I had. Ripple re-imagined the idea and made that. I believe Mark Scaves, bassist for ZED, did this design.
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