Line Up: Stoner - Hard Rock
The Atomic Bitchwax - Scorpio bio
The scourge and scorch of New Jersey returns, and their sting is deadly as ever. Garden State riff rock stalwarts The Atomic Bitchwax proudly present their eighth full-length, Scorpio. In a busy three years since NJ’s most powerful power trio issued 2017’s Force Field, they’ve toured the US and Europe multiple times over, taken part in fests far and wide, and blown past the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut album. Scorpio acknowledges the two-decades milestone in its opening revamp of the first song the band ever wrote with vocals, “Hope You Die,” the crash-in of which will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s seen them live. A generation later, it still gets the message across. From then on, it’s all-go on nine fresh-made burners, founding bassist/vocalist Chris Kosnik, Sweeny and drummer Bob Pantella toying with tempo subtly to lace songs like “Betting Man” and “Easy Action” and “Energy” with signature-style memorable hooks amid instrumentals “Ninja,” “Crash” and “Instant Death,” the head-spinning turns of which push ahead in the aggressive stance The Bitchwax began to present in 2015’s Gravitron while still remaining imbued with new character and the loyalty to classic heavy rock that underlies all their work. Tracked in Jan. 2020 at Sound Spa in Edison, NJ, with Stephen DeAcutis engineering, Scorpio is a righteous next stage of the momentum The Atomic Bitchwax have been building through hard touring and release after release of gauntlet throwing-down rock and roll. This is a band that never stops moving, and only ever moves forward.
