SAL: Runaway CD Single
SAL: Dysfunctional CD
A new Welsh rock band but before you start thinking the obvious, this is different. Here we have the return of female-fronted pop-punk - the Darling Buds for the new millennium rock generation. The opener is a scorcher - high octane guitars and crunching drums above a searing bass line while the vocals of lead singer Cat simply fly, her voice occupying more of a mid-range holler than the high-register girlie vocals of the previous peroxide pop generation. Amid a slew of driving riffing that cuts away to a brief drop-down, then builds to a roaring sea of pop-punk rage, the yearning, angst-ridden vocals deliver the single, a sensational anthem that swirls around in your head ages after it's gone, all punchy, rocking and downright head-shaking hard-pop - this is how the charts should sound! For track three (noone supplied me with a track list here) the territory moves distinctly onto even more raging ferocity within a pop structure as the song thunders along taking you with it and the band and vocalist go supernova - superb!! So it goes - song after song of driving, anthemic, unforgettable and highly addictive pleasure. Making the likes of Lavigne and her ilk look like also-rans, this should be essential listening for anyone who thinks they know how punk-pop can sound. The rest are just playing - this is the real deal. Go buy!!

SCHITZTOME: The Art Of Dying CD
A mix of hardcore, death metal, thrash and beyond would, you think, be the perfect way to go up your own backside in a blaze of unremitting doom - but in the hands of this new band from Plymouth, with the attention they have to making it all sound like there really are three musicians and a singer delivering this potent brew, things are working out just fine. The singer has the roar of a thousand men while the guitarist can play thickly slabbed riffing that melts tungsten and at the same time play chords at the speed of light. The rhythm section takes no prisoners - brutal and fast is generally the order of the day as they drive everything forward with power and force. As a wicked way of achieving its effect, the songs here are spot on, with 10 across thirty minutes that's just about enough without overdoing things, although the desire to play and experience it all again is pretty positive. In a similar musical sphere, only Dundee's FMW have given me greater enjoyment in recent times, so this is right up there with the best of them - buy or die!!

SELF AGAINST CITY: Take It How You Want It EP CD
Oooooooo - wow - I just love it when you know within seconds that the CD you're about to review is going to be just the business - and this is one of those CD's. That opening salvo of guitars is just pure widescreen Sugar riffing that has you hooked within seconds, while the song is delivered to perfection by a vocalist who fits like a glove as the whole thing decelerates only to build even higher and then explode in a hail of guitar-driven wall-to-wall dynamics as the rhythms and guitars rise and fall in a spectacular slice of song-writing that fits so much into les than three minutes, you'll be jaw-dropped in amazement - the perfect emo song and then some. 'Speechless' is a slower, more heartfelt number that shows you have a band who can deliver songs that rely on crisp chords, choppy, chunky rhythms, crystal clear arrangements, heartfelt lyrics and vocals that flow like a stream on a sunny day, the whole thing so emotionally intense in a gorgeous way, as the whole thing rises up towards the end to provide the much anticipated wall of guitars and solid rhythm section work as you are so uplifted with it. 'All This Time' is another variation on their theme of class song-writing and arranging, so addictive and so powerful yet so wonderfully crafted, full of highs and lows in terms of the dynamics of the song, again with fragile guitars and solo vocals next to walls of guitars, strong rhythms and multi-tracked vocals, all of which work to perfection. With three further songs, all of equal class, quality and enjoyment, this is emo or nu-rock addiction that you'll just want to play again and again and again without ever tiring of its heady delights.

SINOCENCE: Black Still Life Pose CD
I may be missing the point, but I'm always after an album of molten metal that essentially has its roots in the death metal and thrash styles, but one where you don't feel your being torn apart limb by limb - more one that simply bludgeons you to pieces in the best possible way - and this achieves that spectacularly. Everything is spot on - the songs, the production, the arrangements - all of it makes for one of the most powerful intense metal albums that you can genuinely sit through and enjoy the whole furnace-heat experience. The vocals are sung, the lyrics are audible, the rhythms are crisp and crunching while at the same time being fierce and on fire, and the guitars riff and drive into a black hole - hell's teeth, there are even guitar solos - yes, REAL guitar solos - by the truckload - short, precise, sharp and spot on. This is a rare beast and one of the most enjoyable and long-lasting slices of metal with a thrash-y edge that I've come across in a while. Just LISTEN to that guitar work - it blazes a trail like few others playing real man's metal with attention to melody and allowing the full power of the songs to come shining through. The songs themselves are full of attention-grabbing and quite sensible lyrics, a veritable icing on a molten metal cake, while the vocalist delivers them with aggression but a voice that soars, red hot and flying. Overall, this is one seriously faultless album of pure metal that surely can't fail to make this band a sensation across an ocean of metallic styles, cutting through them all with power and passion, and simply stunning stuff.

SMASHUP: Untreatable CD
Debut album from new American band and while it's tight and hard in the rocking stakes, it's also got a phenomenal sense of structure and dynamics as the songs' arrangements take you from a wild and wicked world of post-hardcore holocaust, albeit with a steaming set of songs, to more introspective but, lyrically, no less rewarding, compositions. The vocalist is well upfront and delivers everything with a boiling passion, while the instrumental backdrops are many and varied, mostly metallic and riffing, occasionally acoustic and tender, but all produced and created with shedloads of loving care. It's all really quite different and inventive in many ways, but ultimately rewarding.

SOCRATIC: Lunch For The Sky CD
This is one of those rare albums where you really listen to the lyrics as they tell their tales of lives unfolding, opportunities missed, inherent feelings, situations encountered and life in general - the writer is just amazing, producing songs to which you remain absolutely transfixed, play after play after play. The added fact that the songs are wrapped up in an American indie slice of pop-rock guitar heaven and delivered with the magically intense and yet fun approach of a band like Blink 182 or Good Charlotte is the icing on the cake, as song after song take you with them on a journey that is breathtaking. The musical equivalent of leaving it all behind and cruising down the highway towards a new dawn while remembering with affection a glorious past, this is a set of songs, arranging, playing and singing that have to go down as sheer brilliance. There's elements of everything from the Blinks through Todd Rundgren to the Beach Boys as a tight, flowing and above all fun and mature set of songs cut through and have you eating out of their hand. Anthemic, heartfelt and rocking, this is the sound of America and it makes you wanna fly the stars and stripes from the very rooftops - stunning and then some!!

STATOBARDO: Another Education CD
Now this is different - inventive and quite unlike anyone else around right now. A good thing? Definitely! Although overtly new millennium core, the influences at work range from pulverizing rock to an almost '80's industrial use of sampling and nineties scratching, meaning that what you have here is a furnace-heat cauldron of fiery funk-metal like you've never witnessed. There's no one thing to pin them down to any particular category and not even anything immediately obvious as a band comparison - but, suffice to say, this lot rock with a vengeance, at times throwing in the whole kitchen sink to come up with something nearer to Devin Townsend than anything and you could imagine this lot serving as a perfect support band to that lot. But, track after track provide a wealth of fierce riffing, sizzling guitars that range from chiming beauty to all-out attack, with a production and arrangement that turns the whole thing into a smoking cauldron of sound, all so perfectly evidenced on a track such as 'Under Your Control' which is just jaw-dropping and you can scarcely believe a group could put so much energy and innovation into something just short of six minutes long. But then they launch into the savagery of 'Going Crazy' with a nuclear missile strapped to them, as guitars rage, samples appear, turntables briefly twist and then it all twists only to rage once more, as the whole thing steams ahead. The vocals I should mention because they are absolutely spot on - hard, but discernible, varied but consistent and sound so right for the compositions you simply couldn't imagine anyone else doing this and succeeding. All in all, this packs the power of a jet engine, and the invention of a jet engine and the drive of a jet engine - go fly!!

STEEL TRAIN: Twilight Tales From The Prairies Of The Sun CD
Sometimes the influences that a band take on board will result in something that is way greater than the sum of the parts and that's the case with this album. Taking healthy doses of 'Workingman's Dead'/ 'American Beauty'-era Grateful Dead, add some of the seventies UK band Unicorn (obscure reference number one - but those who know, will know), then present a makeover from somewhere between early Dire Straits and Jonathan Richman, give it all a healthy dose of Americana edge, "et volia!!" - you have some idea of what this fifteen track album is all about. From acoustic harmonies to almost psychedelic Grateful Dead style songs, there's a breadth of vision and a variety of writing and arranging to this album, that will bring a smile to many a fan of Americana and folk-rock of that ilk. There's even odd things that remind a bit of Damien Rice if you fancy a more contemporary reference. Either way, the album is choc full of gorgeously sensitive songs performed in a largely acoustic environment, with a positively soaring male vocal that keeps it all so magical, combined with electric tracks that have a firm feel of early-mid seventies Dead with a slightly more eclectic and definitely more condensed flavour. It's pretty darned good, with every song a different entity yet a flow that runs through the album like blood through its veins, keeping the whole thing fresh and enjoyable.

TEST SWITCH ISOLATOR: Let's Dance CD
Yes - it's a debut album, yes - it's 10 tracks - and yes, it's just 24 minutes long. Hmmm….. But then you listen to it and you realize that we're talking "the Ramones effect" here - in other words, any more would be impossible. Here we have brutal metal turned up to the max, yet written and arranged with intelligence, if that makes sense. You see, this band can change from a whisper to a scream - and bearing in mind that their whisper is most people's screaming - in an instant, so that a song like the immaculately named 'Jazzy Jeff Owes Me Forty Quid" covers everything from death metal to metal rap in the space of three minute, while 'This Rat Spawn Went To Market' is almost metal ska in just a minute flat whereas the following 'Chubby Gets Slapped' is outrageous and brutal metal mayhem for four minutes of death-defying intensity. This style of the album goes even further out on a dismembered metal limb on the even better named "Now You see It, Now it's been shot in the head by an AK47" with a mix of Slipknot and grinding hardcore taken to a suitably intense but wholly listenable and immensely enjoyable extreme, to such an extent you would imagine this being the natural next step on from a band like Slipknot in the extreme but well-written and arranged metal stakes - until you get to four minutes in and out of nowhere the band turn into a ska act once again, just so head-bending you're convinced you've moved into the twilight zone until at twenty seconds short of the end, the roaring headf**k returns only to bellow headlong without a break into the even harder, faster core mayhem of 'Overwhelming Like A Necrophiliac's Tea Party' - all of it just so insane, you wonder what sort of a mind thought it up - and when after just a minute and a half , it stops and moves on, you just have to smile in wonderment, especially as the final track lasts also just over a minute and is a loving homage to you, the dear listener, delivered in metallic Streets style spoken voice - it's all getting so bizarre around here, and this is just the beginning. Stunner!!!!

THIS ILLUSION: Not Just Listening CD Single
Three tracks and nine minutes of driving, urgent nu-metal that rages and rolls with a sea of riffing guitars at its heart as the vocals are spat out and sung to perfection, the rhythm section thundering along as the guitars ignite and the whole lead track takes off with the force, intensity and sheer unbridled power of a Saturn V - and this is just the first track! 'Jump Rope' follows a similar course, its mix of emo,/hardcore/ nu-metal being the factors around which this red-hot and on-fire musical mayhem actually work a treat as another powerful slice of action ensues. In complete contrast, the lat track is acoustic and yet it works a treat, the vocalist really sounding even more anthemic in this context while the acoustic guitars and bass shine brightly on a truly heart-felt track that is to die for, and as perfect as the electric storm that preceded it. This is definitely one red-hot talent that not only deserves to be watched, but supported and given that chance to break through - a seriously incendiary single.

THIS IS MENACE: No End In Sight CD
Thirty-five minutes and ten tracks of raging hardcore that has an emo heart and a nu-metal head, this is nothing short of sensational as the tracks ring out in soaring, heavy and anthemic fashion the vocals upfront and raging, but sung to perfection, while all around this awesome maelstrom of a melting pot that is the riff-heavy, guitar-fuelled, thunderously rhythmic band, all combine to create a musical force that just eats you up with its sheer intensity and napalm-soaked heat. Every song is an out and out gem that defies you to sit still. Best enjoyed when turned way up loud and immersed, this is the sound of roaring rock at its finest, rage and riffing rarely sounding so hot, so passionate and so darned musical, the production bringing out the best in everything. Awesome and then some, this comes highly recommended.

3 STAGES OF PAIN: Black Heart Blues CD
Described as the missing link between hardcore and blues-rock, you'd be forgiven for scoffing at such a description. But you stick on the opening track on this CD, and you'll see what they mean - there really is a blues groove going on underneath the scarily heavy sounding foreground, not hugely so, in case you're a tad put off by that, but there all the same. That said, when you get to the fourth track, the first two and a half minutes mix blazing hardcore with a blues vibe before the whole thing drops back into this absolutely seriously sultry slice of sleazy blues for nigh on three and a half minutes before a slowly moving wall of sludgy riffing starts to climb as this sea of thickly riffing, slow-moving hardcore blues guitar work takes over on a foundation of tungsten strength bass and drums. Yes, folks - it really does do what is says on the tin! A couple of the tracks are pure hardcore rage , but most manage to combine the two styles into this crushingly heavy yet highly original method of composition and playing , the likes of which you won't have heard from any other band on the scene right now. The fact that it works is a testament to a band that really believes in itself. Song after awesomely heavy song provides one of the first ever hardcore albums that you can imagine having a seriously wide appeal to most seventies and eighties rock fans who find this style too dense under normal circumstances. Meanwhile, the rest of us who embrace this brew with open arms, will have a field day playing this to death amid a night of Jack Daniels and some seriously loud entertainment. A brilliant album all round - a new kid on the block who threatens to knock it off.

TOBIAS: Ourlifeinmono CDEP
Band from my old home town of Stafford and things are clearly on the way up there, musically, if this is anything to go by. Five tracks of essentially emo-core nu-metal that ooze class and quality - and they rock!! But it's not down to thrash or speed - no, this is song-writing, arranging and playing that's sheer class - up there with the likes of FFAF, Fony and Br:gade, for sure. The first track is 'Reality' and it's a driving slice of molten emo but with a twist as the song turns all sorts of corners, both obvious and subtle, as it goes, the main riff backed by this buzz-saw distance guitar as the rhythm section drives it all forward with strength. The guitars soar and chime while the vocalist really delivers the goods, impassioned and sung, but mixing powerful and harmonic to excellent effect. Twisting and turning, but rocking and rolling, this is dramatic stuff and thunderous with it - and that's just track one!! Next up is a track that ups the intensity at the beginning with a sea of crushing riffs before it settles down to a chugging rhythm and cascading guitars, as the singer delivers the lyrics in fine fashion. The things begin to build as the cymbals splash, the guitars power up, the drums begin to thunder and it all erupts to an anthemic chorus before dropping back and repeating, all this leading to an end section that is massive sounding as this huge wall of sound roars into life, the vocals flying above it all and the song just making the adrenaline flow as you sit there in sheer disbelief that a local band could sound this hot. 'Forgotten' is in a similar vein, the most FFAF-esque track on the CD - and no bad thing - with a stirring setting that breaks out into a hail of wall-to-wall guitars, riffs and leads as one , with the bassist pounding it out as the drums hammer and another on-fire vocal performance ensues on a song that's full of emotion and angst. All just immense and superb! Two further tracks are just as furnace-hot sizzlers as the rest, if anything 'Save' being the best track on the EP, saving the best for last, as the band blasts out with intention and invention, strong and streaming to awesome degree. Overall, this is metal that doesn't put a foot wrong and this band should contact a label like Drive-Thru or similar, right now, because whoever signs this band has got a winner up their sleeves.

TRACK RECORD: S/T EP CD
A five-track, seventeen minute Ep that opens with the amazingly anthemic summery angst of the huge-sounding 'Plans To Make Up On The Beach' which has you thinking Blink 182 & Sum 41 but takes that brand of catchy emo-pop-rock to even greater heights with some seriously angst-ridden vocals and harmonies that soar over a musical backdrop that has guitars flying, drums thundering and bass pounding away, the vocals in a similar manner to the Blinks, and the whole thing just a magical slice of song-writing. If anything, the second track 'Talk Radio' is even better with its story-telling lyrics, almost hollered yet impassioned vocals allied to meandering arrangements that have you sighing with them one minute and then feeling the force of their angst and drive, the next, as the rhythms and guitars take it all up to decidedly giddy heights on another gem of a song. 'Golden' is a much more forceful, slightly faster style of what's gone before and another song that puts this band right up there with the best of what the aforementioned bands have to offer, and then some, so addictive it deserves to carry a health warning. Two more passionate and powerful songs end the EP, the last number, 'Letter To Summer' so guitar-fuelled and with its stop-start dynamics, and impassioned vocals, solid fast drumming and chiming dual guitar leads and riffs, possibly the best track on what is an EP full of "best tracks" - just astounding stuff and another to be played long, loud and often - a gem!!

27: Holding On For Brighter Days CD
As if by magic, I finish reviewing their rather wonderful split EP with Twin Zero, saying I can't wait to hear a full album, and what should come along - yep, their third album. 10 tracks and thirty five minutes of songs, all of which are absolutely sublime, Whether with a simple rock or more pastoral or positively classical sounding backing, all the songs are suitably chilled out and laid back, the exquisite voice of Maria Christopher, solo and multi-tracked, flowing through the songs with ease and eloquence, her high vocal range veering from soaring high register and totally laid back to sultry and deeper, full of mystery and promise. From chiming guitars and throbbing rhythms to soul-stirring strings and keyboards, the backings are many and varied but all within the emotional framework of the album's musical ideals and ideas. It's a gorgeous trip as you sway, misty-eyed and full of wonderment, wrapped in a unique, warm and safe environment, where heavenly vocals and lush instrumentation roam free. Paradise on a silver platter.

27/TWIN ZERO: 27.00 CDEP
Two tracks from 27 start proceedings with a gorgeous slice of female vocal and piano delivering a ballad that's truly heartfelt, as piano chords hang in the air and the airy vocal melts your heart for two and a half minutes. Their second track is totally different - founded on a chugging rhythm from upfront bass and crunchy drums, the multi-tracked female voice is a thing of great wonder as she swoons and soars her way through the four minute track, occasional guitar squalls providing an edge to the chorus-y bits. Two fantastic tracks and I can't wait to hear a full album - talent on the rise!!
Twin Zero begin their two tracks with gently strummed acoustic guitar as the wordless harmony vocals soar into being and about a minute and a half in, the lead vocal enters and the feel is a little like an indie acoustic Pink Floyd as bass and guitar alone accompany the vocal, as the song builds and the guitar work is a treat, six minutes of magic. Their second track starts with piano, at a similar pace to the previous track, and once again, about a minute and a half in, the male vocal comes along, this time more subdued as slow motion piano chords back the soaring voice as the ballad builds, the guitar strums along and the whole intensity of the track changes and rises towards a riveting eight minutes of indie ballad heaven. The final track is actually a remix featuring bits of all 4 of the previous tracks, a feat that produces a reward greater than you could have imagined, as a seriously hot and intense slice of instrumental music builds and strengthens with a huge, expansive and full sound, so much so that when it ends at six minutes, you could do with another six. Overall, one absolutely stunning EP.

UNCHOSEN: Billie Jean CD Single
I hope that the band are doing this Michael Jackson cover either to get noticed or to make money or because the record company thought it was a good idea at the time, because it's a bizarre take on the track and, judging by the quality of the two original tracks that follow it, doesn't do the band any justice at all. 'D.O.A." on the other hand is a revelation - strongly lurching rhythms that reveal a squall of electric guitar riffs and thunderous bass, over which the singer give an impassioned performance as the stop-start then all guns blazing nature of the track, and the swirling, searing guitar riffs and soloing, reveals a band that is positively on fire. The five minute 'Dreamspell" is even better with a track that is once again founded on stop-start rhythms and passages that combine with flowing guitar work and electrifying solos as the singer delivers another anthemic performance, and a seriously hot track from a great new band - so why in god's name did they consent to record the cover!! There must be dark forces at work here.

UNCHOSEN: In My Head CD
Hard rather than heavy, muscular rather than metal, this is a seriously strange album in that it's a sort of nu-metal album that's almost afraid to get too heavy, preferring instead to concentrate on the actual songs, their structure and dynamics. Sure there are a family of roaring riffs and monster chords living inside this new-styled dwelling, but this is one for those who want their rock to make them work for a change. The album features a variety of songs, mostly fuelled by raging guitar riffs of one sort or another, and a track like 'Seventeen' will actually make you wonder what I'm on about initially, but then the riff subsides, the delicately chiming guitars enter, the vocals rise on top in crystal clarity and you see EXACTLY what I'm on about. But then they power up once more and leave you thoroughly confused. In many ways it's like a thinking man's Nickelback if that gives you some clue of where they're trying to come from, only in reality, a lot more complex and challenging. Not a lot more I can say - if you want your rock to roll, then this isn't the one - if you want intelligent songs with a certain degree of muscle, then this might be exactly what yer after. Me? The jury's still out…………

YEAR ZERO: With A Menshevik Stride CDEP
A band from London labeled as "post-hardcore" which, in this case, means that the band have blossomed out enough to produce a set of songs that mixes power, passion, subtlety, dynamics, anthemic and attacking stylistic tendencies together in one remarkably potent brew. The songs themselves are delivered with suitably sung - hollering - angst-ridden vocals that light the songs to life, while the combination of dual guitar riffing, soloing and interplay, allied to the massive and tightly knit rhythmic intensity that can suddenly drop back to a whisper before exploding into life once more, all means that here we have four songs that just roar into the skies on a wave of intensity and magic that has you in complete awe of the whole thing as song after song provides one high after another, on an EP that is simply sensational and surely heralds the arrival of a band destined to make it big-time - I, for one, can't wait for an album.

ZERO POINT: Time Stands Still CD
You have to admit that, even for a hardcore album, the vocalists here gives such an impassioned throaty roar of a performance, you half expect to see his lungs leaping out of the speakers as he delivers the songs with a tearing rage and almost unbearably taut vocal. The band crash and burn behind and around him, the shuddering arrangements sitting side by side with moments of acoustic simplicity, dynamic dexterity and shoulder-to-shoulder with soaring acres of guitars and thunderous rhythm section. With compositions averaging six minutes a-piece, there is a whole lot more to digest than yer average hardcore album, with the tracks twisting and turning , soaring and falling, all over the place, so that one minute you're lost in a slowly moving, chiming guitar-led heaven, then suddenly a bass booms out, drums crunch your head and the guitars light up before the whole band erupts and riffs, solos and ensemble power roar forth, as a neat balance of instrumental work stands alongside the rage of the vocalist. It's a very different and fresh-sounding variety of the genre, and to that end, you have to sit up and take notice - even if it is a train ride to hell.

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