In 2009, the respectable historians at Rockadrome Records unearthed recordings by Scottish rockers Iron Claw that had been lost for roughly 35 years. The resulting self-titled compilation was met with a welcome response, and it fueled Iron Claw – who broke up in 1974, but played one or two reunion gigs in the meantime – to reform for new studio material. Recorded by bassist Alex Wilson, mixed and mastered by Stone Axe guitarist T. Dallas Reed and released by reliable purveyors Ripple Music, A Different Game is essentially Iron Claw’s first album, 40 years after the fact. It’s a fascinating proposition, and probably some rockers’ dream, that some day, they’ll finally get the appreciation they’ve long deserved, but that doesn’t necessarily mean doing a new record is a good idea. You’d be crazy to expect that because the three founding members of a band that rocked pretty hard four decades ago got back together and gave it a go with a new singer that they’d automatically pick up right where they left off. Life just doesn’t work that way. It’s like blaming someone for growing up. 40 years is a long time, and I’ve no doubt that Wilson, guitarist Jimmy Ronnie and drummer Ian McDougall – who are joined in Iron Claw by newcomer Gordon Brown – are much different people than they were when they recorded the songs that were later released as Iron Claw.

So foremost for anyone who heard the older Iron Claw material, A Different Game is going to live up to its title. Because it’s true: it’s a completely different game than it was when the band started out, and likewise, they’ve changed too. Most of the 13 tracks on the record are a kind of semi-heavy rock that occasionally drives home a killer blues riff but mostly sticks to a classic rock format. It might seem derogatory to call it “old-man rock,” but that’s what it is. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t rock, it just means it rocks like you might expect it to for being the product of guys whose sphere of influence and means of interpreting that influence are based on what it meant to be heavy decades ago. It’s like when Blue Cheer put out What Doesn’t Kill You. It wasn’t cool because it was so relevant or innovative in its style. It was cool because they were still doing it, because they still had it. That’s what’s working for Iron Claw here. If you’re thinking they’re going to plug back into their old amps and rip through material with the same intensity they did when they were 20 years old, well, I’m sorry, but you’re going to be disappointed both in listening to A Different Game and in life in general. There are a few heavier moments on the record – “See Them Fall” reminds of Iron Maiden, and opener “What Love Left” starts off swaggering and shuffling with Brown perhaps nodding at younger listeners with the line, “Sit down, son, there is much for you to learn” – and Ronnie has several choice solos throughout, but mostly it’s a straightforward traditional rock record that makes a lot of the moves you’d expect.

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They’re on a search for space, and on their 80-minute debut cassette, Scottish psych rockers The Cosmic Dead find it. The tape is self-titled and also known as Cozmik Tape I, released by Who Can You Trust? Records, and the band seems to be centered around a varied lineup, mostly instrumental guitar-bass-drums three-piece with synth added. If all that sounds pretty nebulous, the music contained on the four tracks of The Cosmic Dead follows suit, geared as it is toward massive Hawkwindian swirling jams. Side A feels grand enough, with opener “The Black Rabbit” stretching toward 19 minutes, “Spice Melange Spectrum” at a relatively manageable 6:45 and “The Slow Dead of the Infinite Godhead” at 13:44, but The Cosmic Dead are just waiting for the side to flip so they can unleash the interstellar sprawl of timebending they’ve dubbed “Father Sky, Mother Earth” – a solid 40 minutes (okay, it’s only 39:59) of multidimensional psychedelia. Kudos to the band for being able to pay attention to what they’re doing for that long, let alone making something anyone might want to hear out of it.

But then, I guess that is the question. As The Cosmic Dead propel toward the outer limits of deep space (rock), the number of those who are going to be willing to follow them on the trip is going to dwindle, and though “Father Sky, Mother Earth” unfolds gracefully over the course of its first 10 minutes or so, James T. McKay topping oscillator noise with sporadic soft guitar flourishes, one might already be so hypnotized by the preceding 39 minutes of material that they miss it completely when the song begins to pick up. I guess that’s the tradeoff with this kind of psychedelia, that in part you’re just supposed to go with it wherever it takes you, but to miss out on the quality bass work of Omar Aborida (who appears on “Father Sky, Mother Earth” and “The Slow Death of the Infinite Godhead,” while Josh Longton handles duties for the first two cuts on Side A) is really a loss. The songs are worth paying attention to, is the point I’m making, but it’s hard to do that on a release so densely packed and purposefully repetitive. Life is busy. A lot can happen in 80 minutes.

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So the headline’s a bit misleading. They’re going to jail more in the Johnny Cash sense than the Nick Oliveri sense. Either way, it’s a fascinating story. The classic Scottish heavy rockers will also release their soon-to-be-reviewed new album, A Different Game, through Ripple Music on Oct. 4. Obviously, more on that to come, but in the meantime, it seems playing to prisoners isn’t the extent of Iron Claw‘s charitable nature.

The PR wire has details:

Scottish proto-metal pioneers Iron Claw return with a long-awaited album of gritty, blues-based melodic heavy rock that is already garnering album-of-the-year accolades from the press. The 13-track album, A Different Game, is scheduled for UK release on Oct. 3 and worldwide release on Oct. 4, just in time for the band’s CD release event to be held at the Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow, Scotland on Oct. 5.

“The release of this album marks the realization of a lifelong dream for each of us in the band,” says guitarist Jimmy Ronnie. “To be honest, it’s something that I had thought had passed me by. But it’s not just any album. It’s the record that Iron Claw always needed to make — hard, heavy, guitar-based rock with its roots in the blues. I’m delighted to say that we’ve succeeded in capturing the live spirit of the band on this record.”

The Barlinnie Prison gig is more than just a CD release event. The performance is sponsored by Governor Derek McGill to help show the prisoners that there are healthier alternatives to crime, such as playing and creating emotionally stimulating music.

“I am confident the prisoners in Barlinnie will love this gig,” McGill states, “This is not about entertainment for prisoners; it is to let them see alternative recreational pursuits that can lead them away from crime, introduce them to hobbies such as music that can give them a fresh start.”

The benevolent beings of Iron Claw have also announced that they will be headlining a charity event on Sep. 25 at Comlongon Rocks, which will assist Cash for Kids and Cancer Research. 22 bands and six DJs, and all for a mere £10! For more information, please follow the link: http://www.comlongonrocks.com

Hey YouTube, thanks for taking the frame out of your embedding options this week. Not like that was a major reinforcement of my site’s color scheme or anything. Jerks.

We end this long Friday with “Pavement Artist” by Iron Claw, just because it rules. It’s not topical, they’re not coming to the city this week for a show, there’s nothing relevant about it other than it’s good, and I can’t even begin to tell you the satisfaction that posting it for that reason alone gives me. Long week? Shit.

But it’s over now, and as I stare both into a bowl of microwave risotto and down the barrel of a long weekend spent doing homework, all I have left to say is thanks for checking in the last few days. I know posts have been few and far between, but I’ve been working hard, and though I may have mentioned it once or twice, it means a lot to me that you come back more than once.

My best to you for a safe and enjoyable weekend.

It would be literal nonsense — in that it wouldn’t make any sense at all — for me to review Hawk, the new collaboration record between Isobel Campbell (formerly of Belle and Sebastian) and Mark Lanegan (ex-Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, etc.), but I got it today and some of it is pretty killer in a moody pop kind of way. I don’t know what it’s doing out by you, but “Snake Song” is perfect for the gray humidity inflicting itself on the valley this evening. Enjoy: