Des Rocs – To Hell and Back

Des Rocs – To Hell and Back
Sumerian Records
Release: 13/06/26
Words: Jon Deaux
Score: 8.1/10 

Des Rocs emerges from this journey to and from Hell not only with his leather jacket and Brooklyn folklore but also with enough genetic material borrowed from Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Orbison, and Muse to fill a rock-and-roll hall of fame – and yet still manages to not sound like any of those artists. An anthem for the proletariat for all those who have ever had “no” shouted at them by some guy with a lanyard around his neck.

The truth is, there seems to be an endless flow of rock and roll messiahs emerging from New York City, like some faulty vending machine endlessly producing slightly crushed and misshapen Snickers bars – constantly, loudly, and with the hint that something seriously has gone wrong on the inside. And yet. And yet. Once in a while, one of those misshapen Snickers bars proves to be exactly what you need at 1:47 am on a Sunday. Des Rocs (born Rocco Posillico, hailing from Brooklyn, and armed with the knowledge gained from years of rejection from those sporting lanyards) is precisely this Snickers bar, and ‘To Hell and Back’ is the wrapper, the chocolate, and the slightly stale nougat of perseverance.

Let’s establish the heritage first because Rocco’s influences include such legendary names as Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Muse. The kings, the mystic, the god, the theatrical masters, and the maximalist prog-rockers from space. Most sane people would take such influences and create a tribute band. But a person with ambitions, on the other hand, takes such influences and thinks of ways of sounding different from all of them and taking inspiration from all of them anyway. It is an ambitious goal. An ambitious goal that, to much surprise, largely succeeds.

First of all, we need to be clear as to whom this record is intended to reach. It is obviously not for those who consider “nuanced” and “subdued” their favourite rock adjectives and listen to playlists like Sunday Mornings. This is an album that takes nuance right into its eyes and then tells “not today, pal!” before giving the concept a kick into the Hudson River. Eleven songs. Zero apologies. There is even a producer – the amazing Joe Chicarelli, who managed to get rock and roll from the White Stripes and The Strokes – who took a look at Rocco in a studio and probably thought to himself “yes! We need to blow this place up!”

Des Rocs himself describes his music as “bedroom arena rock,” which is supposed to be a ridiculous expression. And yet there it goes again, accurately describing the essence of an album that somehow combines the atmosphere of writing songs in a Brooklyn apartment heated by a radiator with performing for 40,000 spectators whose main aim was to get into catharsis over their debts. Here we see how the melodrama of the Orbison comes through, all the wounded grandeur and the emotional storm clouds that pass above him. And of course we feel the guitar mastery and passion characteristic of Jimi Hendrix, letting the instrument breathe and explode.

And somewhere in the construction – mainly in the bigger compositions – there seems to be a trace left by the stadium DNA of Queen, that is the feeling that rock and roll needs to be felt as a significant event. But what’s remarkable is how this legacy is not paraded proudly on Rocco’s sleeve, as the signature of a tribute act. Instead, it serves as a foundation upon which he creates something entirely different. For instance, the legacy of Muse does not manifest itself in any way as “we also have a synthesizer and a thesaurus”. It is subtler than that – the grand intentions of a songwriter and a performer treating rock music as a vehicle that can take him to the next level of musical expression.

So how does it all come together? Well, in the middle ground between exhaustion and exultation – which is, now that I think of it, exactly where a record called ‘To Hell and Back’ is supposed to be.

It took Rocco years to accumulate the impossible heritage of rock – the emotional honesty of Elvis, the melodrama of Orbison, the masterful chaos of Hendrix, the theatrical scale of Queen, and the sky-level ambition of Muse – and instead of being buried beneath its greatness or resorting to imitation, he decided to digest it. He converted the heritage into energy and used it to reach somewhere where none of these masters went, as these places exist only if you grow up in Brooklyn having a radiator problem and a Williamsburg Bridge-sized chip on your shoulder.

Joe Chicarelli should be mentioned separately. He succeeded in balancing between the two extremes which many rock producers fall off. On one hand, the record is huge without becoming too pretentious. On the other hand, it is polished without losing the gritty soul it is based on. You can feel the city in it. You can hear the years in it. You can hear the specific sound of those who were told “no” too many times and came to the conclusion that “no” belongs to those who say it.

Is it perfect? No. The final minutes of ‘War’ are somewhat weak, and the mid-album tracklist is sometimes satisfied with sheer conviction that could have been a little bit surprising and creative. But conviction is tremendously underestimated nowadays, considering our era of ambiguity and indifference. A man who creates music specifically for “the fighters, the dreamers and the survivors” and really means it – that’s not insignificant. That’s actually pretty large.

‘To Hell and Back’ is a record about falling and standing up. Musically speaking, it is exactly what climbing out of a dumpster, adjusting your leather jacket, and winking at the camera looks like. ‘To Hell and Back is’, in a very literal sense, exactly what it claims to be – and in the modern era of promises and disappointment, that’s something pretty big.

So welcome back, Des.

Tracklisting:

1. When The Love Is Gone
2. Fall Together
3. Sing Me Back To Sleep
4. The More She Wants
5. The Riders of Red Hook (Legends Never Die)
6. The King
7. This Land
8. War
9. The Juice
10. Supernaturalize
11. The Way

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Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Jon Deaux and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.