Photo: Catey Rose Manov
Adelaide’s doom rock darlings Rocky’s Pride & Joy have been harnessing the darkness of the South Australian city since 2020 and channelling their surroundings into their music to make slow, heavy grooves with fuzz-drenched riffs and twisting vocals. Churches with lurid pasts, infamous murders, and macabre mysteries have all informed their debut album All The Colours Of Darkness, released via Electric Valley Records, last autumn.
Who is Rocky? What is their Pride & Joy? All these questions remain mysteriously unanswered, although the band certainly take pride in having recorded their LP in a series of live takes with few overdubs. We thought it about time we prised open some of the the paranormal power-trio’s secrets, so we asked them to share three records that inspired and influenced All The Colours Of Darkness.
Jessi Tilbrook (Drums): Chelsea Wolfe – Hiss Spun
Energetically, this record inspires me deeply. Its distant sound takes me to a faraway fantasy and Chelsea delivers these songs like a series of dark and beautiful lullabies. It’s sweet and soft but also heavy, offering huge dynamics which is the type of music I often naturally gravitate to.
I love that I can hear Troy Van Leeuwen’s tone and style within this record. It fits so right. I feel like the only thing that could have possibly made this album any more perfect would be a little collab with Chino Moreno. But I’ll keep wishing for a Chelsea x Chino collab in the future!
Dom Ventra (Bass): Pallbearer – Forgotten Days
Forgotten Days is an album I regularly find myself returning to and is probably the most influential, I wouldn’t necessarily say in terms of Rocky’s Pride & Joy’s music, but for me personally as an overall inspiring piece of art that makes me want to be as creative as possible.
From start to finish I think it’s a flawless album and one I just can’t get enough of. I’ll be driving to work listening to the track ‘Stasis’ absolutely butchering the vocals as I sing along; it’s my mental preparation routine for a standard workday.
Brenton Wilson (Guitar and Vocals): Monolord – Rust
For me personally, there are four key albums that influenced ours, and one of them is Rust by Monolord. The tones and grooves on that record are so huge and tough that I definitely tried to harness that into our songwriting.
Their song ‘Where Death Meets The Sea’ was one of only two tracks we used for a mixing reference.
All The Colours Of Darkness was released last autumn via Electric Valley Records and can be streamed and purchased HERE
