Is your Wednesday in desperate need of a murder song featuring cowbell? Well, you’re in luck! have the perfect song for you to steal.
The provenance of Denver hard rock band Red Devil Magic is a bit sketchy. As the story goes, drummer Keith Ellis was thrown in jail in Juarez, Mexico after a fight with locals over a woman named Margarita Santiago. On the cell wall was an image of a red devil, which, perhaps high on heroin, he befriended. After subsequently escaping from “El Negro” prison in Monterrey, he hooked up with some old friends and formed Red Devil Magic.
True or not, it’s one hell of a band origin story, and one perfectly suited for Red Devil Magic’s music. Comprised of former members of and Low Gravity, Red Devil Magic is hard rock with fuzzy guitar riffs, driving drums and scream-sing vocals. At times, there are elements of blues, but the sound is drenched in a love of old school metal with moments paying homage to Black Sabbath, pre-“Black” album Metallica, and stoner rock like Clutch.
On Feb. 24, Red Devil Magic will officially release its debut EP with a show at the . Here, we’ve got the single “Woman” for you to steal. The blues heavy song, which features a cowbell, seems to tell a version of the band’s origin story, except in this story Margarita Santiago is killed by our heroin-high hero. The accompanying video, also available below, shows her being strangled to death then thrown across a donkey. All that’s missing is the red devil hiding in the bushes.
Please note that downloads offered via Steal This Track are intended to whet your appetite, and are NOT CD-quality recordings. If you want those, please support the artists by buying their music and/or seeing them live.
If you’re a band or musician ready to expose your fresh sounds to the readers of Reverb, email your tracks — along with any interesting facts about them, as well as a photo or album art — to Steal This Track for consideration.
Josh Johnson is a Denver freelance writer and Reverb contributor. He is also a co-host/co-producer of the Denver podcast . He’s also a journeyman butcher. Seriously.
