SCORPION CHILD - I Saw The End As It Passed Right Through Me

Artist:  Scorpion Child

Album:  I Saw The End As It Passed Right Through Me

Year:  2025

Genre:  Hard Rock 

Rock is dead.  Rock isn’t dead.  Rock might be dead?!?!  I suppose this all depends on whose view currently has your attention.  Good god, I might actually agree with Gene Simmons on this.  Hard rock does not dominate media outlets as it once did.  I’m not talking about Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC, Aerosmith or anyone of that ilk or popularity.  Those are established icons from decades passed.  Hard rock music dominated the 70s and 80s but was put on life support in the 90s and has never seemed to recover when it comes to new bands that don’t have famous members.  The seismic undertow the alternative wave of the 90s created seemingly swallowed up everything that was considered “uncool” coming out of the 80s, which included straight-up heavy rock bands.  If a band wasn’t already established with superstardom before 1990, you were facing certain doom.  Seriously.  Name a hard rock band that gained massive popularity comparable with the likes of Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen or any of their peers that formed after 1990 that isn’t linked to nu-metal, or alternative, or punk?  Anything?  Foo Fighters, you say.  Maybe.  Even if we let that answer count (Dave Ghrol was already famous, people), that’s one.  ONE IN 30 FUCKING YEARS!!!

As sad as that fact is, bands are still coming out of the corner swinging even though the odds of massive popularity are against them. One such band is Austin, Texas’s Scorpion Child who are proof positive that blood continues to pump through the veins of the heavier side of rock and roll.  I Saw The End As It Passed Right Through Me struck a chord in me that hasn’t been strummed for quite a while.  Maybe I’m also guilty of letting heavy rock die because I haven’t enjoyed a band like this for many years.  In fact, it probably hasn’t been since Hardcore Supterstar’s Dreamin’ In A Casket dropped in 2007.  Even that record is more heavy metal than it is hard rock.  Scorpion Child plays with massive amounts of style, substance and originality.  They successfully walk the line between hard rock and the more aggressive side of alternative. I can see Guns N’ Roses fans digging them just as much as Smashing Pumpkins fans with their dynamic, morose guitar-driven sound.  If I’m being completely honest here, the first two songs are high energy, attention grabbing tracks, but are the weakest on the album.  By the time song 3 titled “Outliers” hits this album just takes off and shows you just what they’re all about.  The strength of Scorpion Child lies in not only their ability to play but also in generating atmosphere.  As I mentioned, the first two songs bang away and pique your interest, but the rest of the album creates a whirlwind of mood.  There is a lot going on in these songs.  It’s an album that will sound good blasting out of your car while paying no attention to the speed limit or that you can play through a set of headphones and discover something new you didn’t hear previously.  Listening to them brings to mind bands such as Bang Tango, Saigon Kick, Pink Cream 69 and even The Misison and The Cult, which isn’t surprising since they most likely took their name from The Cult’s “Lil Devil.”  If you’re into any of those, Scorpion Child just might become your new favorite band.  Since I just discovered this cool band, I now need to dive back into their catalog.

Listen to "Outliers" here.