Restless Spirit Teams With Jeff Matz for Fierce Take on Ramones’ “Poison Heart”

For the final advance single from “Marc Urselli’s Best of Ramones Redux” that will be released parallel to the forthcoming MER Redux Series installment “Marc Urselli’s Ramones Redux”, Long Island trio Restless Spirit are being joined by High On Fire bass player Jeff Matz to pay homage to the Ramones track ‘Poison Heart’.

The liner-notes for the Ramones album “Mondo Bizarro” (1992), on which the song was originally released, claim that this song was one of three written by the band’s (at the time already former) bass player Dee Dee Ramone, who exchanged it for bail money following his arrest for possession of marijuana.

Restless Spirit comment: “When the idea of doing a Ramones tribute song came up, ‘Poison Heart’ was our obvious choice”, guitarist and vocalist Paul Aloisio writes. “This track has got everything that we like in a song – great leads, a big chorus, and introspective lyrics. On top of this, being able to record with a renowned producer like Marc Urselli was a dream, and of course, collaborating with Jeff from High On Fire is definitely a highlight of our career.”

The third and latest Restless Spirit full-length “Afterimage” embodies the East Coast trio’s aim of never wanting to sound exactly like before. The album serves Long Island deep-fried guitars seasoned with pounding rhythms and emotionally raw vocals. Where predecessor “Blood of the Old Gods” (2021) sometimes ushered the listener into twisted complexity,

“Afterimage” delivers short, sharp shocks that hit straight home. Embarking on their musical journey very early in life, the band’s core of Aloisio and bassist Marc Morello met the summer before Kindergarten and grew up discovering music side by side. Their debut full-length “Lord of the New Depression” (2019) fit equally well into the stoner, doom, and sludge molds, while on “Blood of the Old Gods”, the three-piece developed a more varied, melodic approach with added complexity.

Bass player Jeff Matz is best known as the bassist of American stoner metal band High On Fire from Oakland, CA. The band was founded by Sleep vocalist and guitarist Matt Pike together with the band’s first bass player George Rice in 1998. The latter was replaced by Joe Preston, who left the band while on tour in 2006. Zeke bass player Jeff Matz stepped in on short notice and the chemistry worked out so well that he became a full-time member of High On Fire during the recording of the fourth full-length “Death Is this Communion” (2007). Matz recorded and toured on the following five albums, with “Cometh the Storm” (2024) being the latest, and he is currently the only remaining full member along with Pike.