Despite the fact that I'm not actually working in the music business anymore, as regards a day job, I still get asked to do a lot of reviews, presumably 'coz my reputation for an honest opinion as well as producing something that's entertaining to read, is still held in some regard. So, those with enough of an attention span.....start here:
DAVID R BLACK – Empire Building CD-EP
Fresh young trio delivers classic rock anthem – yes, that’s exactly what happens here – this awesome slice of surging indie-rock erupts onto the scene with all the firepower of a small army but with a sense of song-writing that would put many to shame. There’s a distinct air of Sisters of Mercy-meets-Foo Fighters to this as the lead song powers its way through your head to intensely pleasurable proportions, sounding just sensational. But this is no one-track EP – no sirreee, Bob – the next track is “Shot To Pieces” that starts with strident rhythm section and impassioned vocals as the guitar layers pile in and the song takes off in a tornado of urgency, the guitar leads spiraling and flowing through a charging rhythm section as the vocals provide the verses and chorus to mesmerising degree. A third track, “Superheavy”, that isn’t on the album, makes this even more of an essential purchase as it takes a more emotional and highly charged slice of songwriting that slows things down slightly but loses none of the band’s intensity or firepower, instead preferring to smoulder before the whole thing catches fire. A superb song that is every bit as good as anything on the album and the other 2 tracks on this EP.
DAY OF RISING – High Hopes And Empty Homes CD-EP
You had to pick my jaw up off the floor when, on the third track, I idly read the promotional blurb that comes with these things, only to find that this band is Spanish – I mean to say, you have to be kidding. Spanish? Jeez, they sound like they come from South Wales at the very least. For we’re talking grade-A indie-rock with a production that’s expansive, a sea of urgency in the riffing and driving rhythms, delightful touches in the lead guitar breaks and three songs that would light up any FFAF or Brigade audience. The lead and title track uses dynamics for its effect as much as intensity with the fiery lead guitar work running through the undercurrents as lead and, mostly harmony or multi-tracked, vocals, add a real depth to the strident songs, dropping down to almost pop-laced heartfelt proportions, suffixed by jangly guitars, lilting bass, mounting drums then a spark of a guitar riff and back into the unadulterated emo-esque power of the main drag. A great song that, although a tad light for what it sets out to achieve, is a superb intro to the band. The second track, “Destroying Dialogues”, is equally intense, after a brief intro, and also twists and turns as it goes, but this time there’s something a bit too angular and twisted about it all, but then the beast starts to climb and this monumental chorus breaks out, before it drops back a bit too soon, goes into a lead guitar break, drops back even further then climbs back rather than erupts, and you get the feeling that maybe they’re trying a bit too hard, but that chorus makes you forgive them. The final track, however, “Press Your Eyes And Taste The Light”, gets it spot on with sharpened deadly accuracy as the jangly guitars and solid rhythms cruise effortlessly under anguished vocals before the harmonies break out but this time, on top of the roaring riffs, the song really breaking out so that, while it also uses those trademark dynamics of arrangement, here just lights up and takes off to the skies, a blistering song that really does the business but one that isn’t afraid to deviate from all-out power and nothing else – because they do it so well. Definitely a band to watch.
DEAD CITY RIOTS – Always Is Never The Same
Oh yeahhhhhhhhhhhh……………….now this cooks! Right from the opening immediacy of “Kerosene”, you are hurled headlong into a wickedly driving, fast-paced set of songs that made me want to forget typing this out and just leap about the room doing air guitar. The sheer energy that this band unleash is absolutely addictive, and the fact that they can write some incredibly strong songs, too, is nirvana itself. Speaking of Nirvana – neat link, huh!!! – there’s more than an element of that band’s grunge trademark to this, while their vocals and style provide a follow-up that is pure Foo Fighters in many palaces on the album, a shining example being the amazingly commercial rock action that is “Whiskey Summer Junkie” while “Say Nothing” slows things down and becomes more of a Pearl Jam styled smoulder, with vocals that aren’t a million miles from Vedder, but they add an extra layer of emo-quality passion, as the song then takes off and follows that path to perfection, the whole thing mixing Foos and emo, positively seamlessly. It’s so good that you simply have to listen to all of it in one sitting – song after titanium strength song pours out with a sense of arrangement and immaculate production that brings the best out of the band’s abilities all round. “Bridge Jumping” is a song that the Foo Fighters would have killed to produce a year or two back, as it simply hammers into your skull with the commercial intensity that only the best rock writing can provide. There’s so much adrenaline flowing here, you’ll not sit down for a week once you’ve played this album, and the feeling you get is so invasive, that there should be a government health warning on the thing to prevent you from overdosing on it – yeh, it really is THAT hot. Think I’ll give it another go – I can take it – I won’t get hooked – maybe……….. fan-fuckin’-tastic – this could be album of the year in my books – it’s certainly up there with the best of them – you HAVE to buy this album!
DISCO ENSEMBLE – First Aid Kit
If the idea of a Finnish punk-rock combo that dips its toes in the waters of melodic hardcore, is one that frightens you, then you’ve clearly not listened to this album. Because what you have here are 12 songs that explode into life with an energy and musical drive to make you really sit up and take notice. Combine that with some great vocals that really deliver the songs, plus lyrics that are meaningful, personal and thoughtful, and you have one of the most intelligent slices of punk-rock pleasure on the planet. For this is way more than “just another punk rock band” – sure you’ve got choruses pouring out like blood from an open wound, but the arrangements provide a high-octane ride through an arsenal of guitars and rhythms, with bass pounding to the fore on many occasions, as the songs soar and drive. Played pretty intensely and mostly mid-paced to fast, they have a remarkably full sound that would be more worthy of an emo band, something into which they do slip on the intro to the title track, which slows this down to provide a strong, almost balladic, punk rock anthem, before it all slowly lifts off on waves of searing guitar leads, twanging bass and solid, insistent drums, before dropping down to earth as the vocals become ever more passionately delivered, on a song that rises and falls to perfection. But, overall, this as consistent and enjoyable as they come, with nothing less than quality tracks from start to Finnish!!!
DISCO ENSEMBLE – Black Euro CD Single
Three minutes of high-energy pop punk from a Finnish band who really know how to compose a classic, as a hardcore-laced slice of hi-octane punk is unleashed from a band who know the value of a great song. With all the effectiveness of bands such as Green Day, Offspring and even Foo Fighters, this is one infectious song that doesn’t so much crawl under your skin as tunnel through it, refusing to let go for one solitary second. With a chorus that sails into life and verses that are delivered with a passionate intensity, this is one storm-force piece of commercial punk-rock that, with daytime radio play, could easily follow the footsteps of the aforementioned bands.
EASYKILL: National Record Of Achievment Mini-CD
7 tracks and twenty five minutes of songs that are actually quite fierce in their own indie way – there’s a real power at the heart of the machine, but that’s far from the whole story. In there too are elements of late seventies punk, modern hardcore, hints of emo, bits of American “punk moderne” and more influences than you can shake a stick at. The overall sound is quite grungy while the songs, averaging about three minutes apiece, really cut through. There isn’t what I’d call the killer track on here, and while the songs are performed with more than a sense of urgency and angst, that all-important sense of commercial crossover, isn’t quite there, although this is balanced by the obvious fact that seeing these songs performed live is going to be an adrenaline rush of epic proportions. Throughout the CD, the band whip up a storm, with some blood-curdling guitar work, steaming riffs and the general hammer-blow crunch of grungy rock set on fire by a singer who really sounds animated and angry, but with a vocal that soars above the torrent of instrumental power that rolls along underneath. Aggressive without sacrificing the song and yet with a hypnotic effect that’s totally engaging once you put it on, and the more you play it, the more addictive it becomes.
FATHER – Cynosure CD Single
Now you wouldn’t expect an emo-meets-metal band from Croatia to sound like a rather fine English band, but they do – in fact, quite uncannily so. A quintet featuring two guitarists, they have produced a full length album called “Inspirita” from which these two tracks are taken. The opener is a slow-burning slice of indie-rock while the second is a much more rousing slice of all-out alternative rock, hints of Metallica and KMFDM abounding, as the guitars really cut loose amid a blitz of raging rhythms and thunderous guitars, the vocals really scything through the chainsaw riffing, on a song that is simply superb and easily the better of the two tracks.
FIRSTBORN-Release The Embers CD-EP
Now here’s a band that want you to listen – they want your full attention – they want you to listen to their songs for they have much to say. They write songs that are three and four minute offerings which are lyrically rich, heartfelt and sung with passion, grace and intensity. They wrap these songs up in an anthemic yet fiery restraint, preferring to smoulder rather than actually catch fire, although no less glowing for all that. To classify them as emo or indie or hardcore is actually missing the point. There are few hooks, no real choruses as such, just a class set of songs with strong vocals, good harmonies, solid vari-paced rhythms, guitar work that ranges from riffing to jangly leads and a sincerity of approach that makes them so unique. It’s easy to enjoy, but also easy to forget – and by that I mean that while it’s there you love it, but when it’s not there, you’re not desperate for it – odd juxtaposition, brave band and you do feel that there’s a lot more to come out of so individual an approach.
FLOORS AND WALLS - The Stand CD-EP
A very kind lady called Rachel once said to me "you have the gift to see the good in music that you don't even like", something she admired. However, for me to do that, there has to be "good" in there somewhere. Which is why this is the biggest load of utter cobblers I've heard in years. You simply could not find one good word to say about it - although several come to mind - try - cliched, unfunny, worthless, annoying, badly done - the sort of set of songs you would happily drop from a great height just to see how many pieces you could create. Stuf like this really does have no merit whatsoever, and I do feel sorry for the twisted minds that think so. I was supposed to review the album - not a great deal of point, to be honest. Sorry Rachel, but this would try the patience of a saint. Next, please.........
FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES - Pioneers CD Single
Suitably powerful and suitably twisted, this is a howling roar to arms as it launches into action with all the force of a punch to the kidneys by a lead-lined glove. The mix of yowled and sung vocals works well, as the arrangement varies from driving to dynamic, with some serious twists and turns in the guitar department, with a neat use of layers, while the rhythm section puts it on ten and explodes. The song itslf works well enough, forceful and headbanging, although nothing you're particularly going to remember much longer after you've heard it. Effect, certainly, commercial even for its genre, not so sure.
FOR THOSE LOST – This Is Our Fight
Following a brief intro to lull you into a false sense of security, this band then unleash a hurricane of rhythms and scything guitar leads and riffs as this vocalist hollers out. The rhythms sound a bit thudding at times, while the vocalist lets you hear what he’s singing – always useful in cases of hardcore – while the guitars stray like rifle fire all over the territory, the whole thing twisting and turning like a hunted animal.. Almost without a break, they up the intensity on the even faster – initially – and more twisted – eventually – “I Smile At Your Terror” where the guitars swarm like a million angry wasps as the rhythm section threatens your floorboards and the vocalist becomes ever more strangled. Then it all takes a sideways leap into the abyss, before, amid a hail of searing guitar heat, the vocalist cries out, and with all the power of an out of control jet fighter, they power up and hit the ground hard. Now the heat is at furnace levels and they show no sign of turning it down, with fast-paced rhythms, thunderous riffs and incendiary guitar breaks, all topped by a vocalist whose clearly come to take your soul and devour the thing grinning. The arrangements, for all its razor sharp power and fleeting brilliance, are actually quite inventive, with some seriously twisted directions being followed when the band or the guitarist, stray from the chosen main path, and this gives them a neat sense of place in a world of music filled with bands that need to stick their heads above the water to save from drowning in a sea of similarity – you can safely throw this lot the lifebelt.
GODSIZED - Fight And Survive CD Single
A big lumbering beats of a track headed by crushing waves of guitar riffing, punctuated by solid rhythmic foundations from the bass and drums, with well upfront vocals delivering the melodic aspect of the song as a slice of modern-sounding old-skool metal is unleashed. That the track straddles the hinterland between two particular decades of metal - with a mix of Judas Priest and Nickelback being the most obvious frames of reference, it will be interesting to see which audience greets it the fondest. Either way, it's more a sizzling burner than a nuclear rocker, but it's good stuff and highly enjoyable.
LIPID – Deliver Us From Evil
Danish thrash metal quartet that seem to want to occupy the lofty positions taken by the likes of Slayer and Testament at their peak, with a searing heat of 9 tracks averaging four minutes apiece, but at the pace at which they are taken, seem to last a lot longer, as the band pummel, punish and pulverize their way through a blistering barrage of rhythm thunder and guitar attack. With vocals from the gates of hell, a bass so heavy it threatens the floorboards, drums that rattle your teeth never mind just the fillings and a twin guitar attack that tears the roof of your head off, this is the stuff to give nightmares of expectation to even the most ardent of headbangers, as the group almost defy you to keep up with them. Along the way are plenty of striking lead guitar breaks and duels as the rollercoaster thrash foundations are unleashed and the massive might of the compositions never lets up. Oozing class from every pore, this is the seriously addictive end of the thrash trail with every song powering up and taking off with more energy than the heart of an exploding sun, and an effect that is mind-blowing metal at its best, superbly produced, and sounding just awesome.
NIGHTMARE VISIONS – Gates Of Delirium
So often when I do the reviews for certain places who want them, I’m handed debut albums – so it makes a change to be reviewing a fourth album from a band who’ve got some experience behind them. So, for this album, they unleash 8 tracks and 45 minutes of songs, now as a stripped-down trio, but what emerges is far from stripped down – the sound is heavy, intense, at times brutal, and yet they’ve not gone down a route of wall-to-wall death. Instead they’ve made meticulous attention to the arrangements and production to such a degree that most of the time you’re simply not aware you’re listening to an overtly death metal album, but just simply an on-fire, napalm-soaked, metal monster. The presence throughout of upfront, supercharged guitar riffs that sound alike a million angry guitars, is just part of the appeal. Never too fast for its own good, and despite some pummelling rhythm, this stays at a sensible pace through most of its stay, which actually makes the passages where the juggernaut goes completely out of control, sound even better. The band have developed an excellent sense of arranging, so that a song like “Ethereal Traveller” takes you on a journey of immense proportions as the instrumental passages flare up as hot as a burning sun and every bit as intense, the whole song taking on an identity that becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Vocally, we’re clearly in death metal territory but there’s nothing too over-the-top about the gravely growl, and, if anything, it really does serve to add to the wickedly heavy and menacing mass of songs that pour our of the speakers. That this is obviously a band with a vision, a purpose, a sense of direction, all of which refuse to be compromised, is self evident, but as an album of highly charged, positively addictive death metal, it’s a revelation. Stunning and then some!
NEW PROJECT – Primal Logic Slave
Australian quintet who waste no time with intros and immediately take off on a crushingly heavy slice of guitar riffing and solid drumming. It’s not particularly fast, but it’s heavy as a lead pipe. The vocals are initially almost screaming but then veer between a screaming rage that makes Linkin Park look like Noddy and the more restrained but no less strong main lead vocal. The addition of an expansive keyboard presence puts it more in the industrial metal vein, as we get something that mixes the commerciality of Linkin Park with a more power metal approach, and in the case of the opening track, “Cyberpunk”, it really works a treat. For “Voice In The Machine” things decelerate slightly but, if anything, the intensity is increased to raging torrents of juggernaut riffing and huge towers of guitars as the vocals follow their path of whispering evil mixed with soaring optimism on a song that is as dense as it is heavy and yet utterly hypnotic as you imagine swaying on a metal dancefloor to this turned up loud to the point of deafening. The fact that it’s yet another consistent slice of songwriting too, is just the icing on the cake. “The Fairy And The Reaper” increases the pace so that it appears even heavier, as the thunderous disembowelling bass joins the thick and dripping molten guitar leads as the drums pound and the shouted but in tune vocals drive their menacing way through the darkness. Two further tracks of equally heavy and evil proportions complete a riveting slice of industrial metal that is more metal than industrial, but gets the balance just right for what it’s setting out to achieve – the takeover of your very soul with a nuclear holocaust of musical intensity.
PANIC CELL - What Doesn't Kill Us CD
Ah, dontcha just love the deceptively soft introduction - that old trick never fails. Soothing guitar chords - then - boommmmmmm!!!! - the band crash in with drums that hammer, bass that pounds, guitars that travel at the speed of light, vocals that sound like Metallica gargelling with gravel and a song that simply roars. Massive in every way, and even with no actual hook or chorus, it nevertheless strikes fear into the hearts of the timid. There's even room for a searing guitar lead as it goes,proving you can have your cake and eat it. That the second track follows a similar path is both to be welcomed an expected. That the whole album follows a similar path is a headbanger's delight - it's molten metal from the bottom of a decidedly grungy well. Some of the songs do have hooks, some of them more dynamics than 100% power, some twist and turn all over the show - in fact, some do all this and more in a single track!! But what the album does command is your attention - it's got that certain something that separates it from the masses while at the same time losing none of the mighty expansive qualities that hardcore metal with a well written and arranged set of songs, should possess. I wouldn't say it's the greatest album around right now, but it is hot, it is immediate and I would imagine, fairly long-lasting. I could have done with more "tuneful" vocals and songs of a more memorable quality, but for now, this will do nicely.
SANCHO PANZER – A Current Archetypal
Variety is the spice of life while consistency is to be admired – that this hard-rocking band from Exeter provide both by the truckload on this 24 minute 6-tracker of a CD, is both to be admired and enjoyed. A clutch of songs that are lyrically adept and extremely well written, presented in set of wrappings that erupt, burn, drive and twist their way into existence. The opener, “18-30 Overture” gets things off to a rousing start with a seriously intense roar above which angular lead guitars cascade and soar, while the vocals are of the impassioned yearling variety, topped with harmonies and multi-tracks that provide areally anthemic depth to the whole thing as it just springs into life with energy, enthusiasm, electrifying enjoyment and this huge-sounding panorama of emotional firepower that makes the adrenaline roll every time you hear it. They follow this with “High Speed Operation” and this immediately bursts into life with rolling drums, vocals that are sung and hollered in a more melodic fashion, thundering bass and guitar attack that twists, turns and cruises an energy laden path through its anger-filled, high-flying path, occasionally flying off at a tangent for a few seconds before returning to the rock-driven rollercoaster that is the core of the song. After that, “I Am The People” just erupts into life and this, for me, is the best song on the mini-album, with great lyrics superbly delivered amid bursts of guitar firepower that weave webs which take on a whole new form before your very eyes as the intricate patterns of progression are revealed as the guitars crunch, the vocals fly and the rhythm section tracks paths that drive it all forward. Amid bursts of choruses and sections that fly off at strange angles only to be recaptured for the main body of the song to continue, this is one stormer of a song. However, “Mandarin” really provides the meat as it becomes the album’s hardest rocker so far with a barrage of emotional guitar firepower over which the cascading vocals engage and attract, as the rhythm section powers it all upwards and the song takes on a life of its own, the fusion of rock and emo in a nu-metal inferno that works just a treat. “No Appeal” slows things down with an almost dubby rhythm that combines with rolling jangly guitars and cascading vocals, before the whole thing takes off in powerful fashion before dropping back to its rolling roots, the song and lyrics as suitably engaging as gone before, and the way the band change paces and faces as the song ensues, is a testament to the remarkable arranging that they possess. Finally we get “Palomino” which sees the CD out in a positively Foo Fighters-meets-Funeral For A Friend type of vein as they also mesh together the styles of several of the tracks that have gone before, to produce a rousing closure to what cannot be denied to be one sensational set of seriously playable songs, long-lasting and performed to perfection.
SENSES FAIL – Calling All Cars CD Single
A taster for the album and it rocks – with a series of riffs that hammer your heart with blistering bliss and adrenaline-filled rhythms, there’s a real sense of take-off here as the whole thing drives ahead in a gloriously strident slice of powerful emo-rock. There is a chorus of sorts, although the whole thing is almost one gigantic chorus as it launches like a rocket and climbs higher and higher as the three and a half minutes ensue., the sort of thing that will have you leaping about uncontrollably wherever you happen to be – so be warned when it appears on the office radio! Vocally delivered with all the qualities you’d expect and on daytime radio would give the likes of My Chemical Romance and the Foos, more than a run for their money.
SHARP END FIRST – Songs For The Betrayed
It’s easy to produce blistering, punishing, ear-bleeding metal of colossal proportions – there are hundreds of bands around doing it. What it isn’t easy to do is produce something so unutterably heavy that is so addictively enjoyable by virtue of the sheer talent of song-writing and arranging that the band is capable of creating. That this EP ticks all the right boxes and goes further down that trail than any other band I can think of right now, is a testament to the almighty talent that this band has. For a start, the sound is brutally, crushingly heavy – the sound of ten bands delivering molten metal with the firepower of a massive militia – with the drums and bass practically promising to demolish every window in the building, while the guitar covers thickly riffing density that is simply incredible and furious, soaring, on-fire leads that are just jaw-dropping. The vocals cover the spectrum, from hollered to sung to harmonies that take you off and lift you up. But within this raging inferno, there’s structure, the sound of the song shining through, as you become immediately wrapped up in its superheated world of metal mayhem, the production bringing out every facet of the band’s talents to perfection. The combination of crushingly heavy instrumentation with high-flying and memorable songs, allied to occasional glimpses of Foo Fighters-esque commerciality, makes the quartet of five minute songs on here, absolutely exceptional in terms of heavy metal at an intensity that you’ll want to experience, time and time again. But there’s a surprise for those that want it – I said that the tracks last five minutes apiece – four of them – yet the EP lasts 34 minutes. That’s because the last track features an instrumental fifteen minute end which is more an exercise in amorphous, cosmic sound sculpting, presumably on guitar, that is really far-out and in an altogether parallel musical universe – sit and listen to this while seriously stoned, and you might never come back down to earth. But then, to scare the shit out of you, just short of seventeen minutes in, the whole thing suddenly erupts in a fury that even the rest of the EP couldn’t match as the iron fist hammers down and the band take off like a nuclear warhead, the effect so dramatic that it’s almost criminal that you now know it’s coming. But the overall way of this happening is so in keeping with the whole ethos of the band that it becomes a track that you’ll sit through time and time again, totally unique and the fact that it works, a fitting coda to a stunning band.
SOLEY MOURNING – Mambo County
Quintet from Birmingham (the UK variety) with a 45 minute album of eleven tracks that reveal one hard rocking band with a sound that’s almost “old skool” as the feel of British ‘80’s metal rises up from the depth only to be greeted by a driving sea of vocals and harmonies that give things a more emo feel, as the two styles are seeming mixed to perfection. “Easylife” starts out with a riff that’s almost worthy of AC/DC, but as the band enter and the upfront and seriously strong lead vocals begin, the song changes shape so that the riff is pushed back, a soaring set of guitars takes centre stage while the arrangement takes the song through addictive chorus, emotive verses and an almost Faith No More-meets-AOR sensibility. By the time “Sometimes” comes up , and the pace slows, you realise that we really are into the territory of a band where the song is more important than the rock, where really emotive rock writing exists that is going to capture your heart and not your feet. But that’s only to fool you, as “Go” erupts in a fury of guitar riffs, but then takes off on a wave of harmonies and soaring vocals as the rhythm section drives it headlong into rock heaven and a stunning slice of songwriting ensues, so infectious you’ll need a vaccination to prevent invasion. This is one amazing song that rocks, doesn’t conform to any pigeon hole of metal or hardcore or the like, but strides out on its own, very much in the same way that Pearl Jam does, but without sounding like that band in any way, shape or form. In actual fact, you do get the same feelings from this as a lot of the first couple of Pearl Jam albums, in other words an ability to mix all sorts of things from grunge through rock to emotive arrangements, all with a vocal that is positively hypnotic, and song after song that are truly the stuff of which rock dreams are made. This is class with a capital “C” and the sort of album that you can, and will want to, play long, loud and often as it proves that there’s really no substitute for class song-writing, and this is 11 examples of that at a peak – a seriously brilliant album from a band that deserves to be massive.
SOMETIME NEVER - Vs Time And Opportunity
A band's quest to play music in which they believe, regardless of commerciality, to "challenge their audience" and to "stay true to punk ethics" is all very laudable providing that you actually don't give a rat's ass whether or not your music gets signed or sold. The fact that this CD has acheieved both says as much about the label as the band. Someone's being very brave!! Why? Well, coz I reckon that this is going to prove to be what many would call "that difficult first album" to drive a wedge in a cliche. For a start, the production, while incredibly crisp and clear, still manages to make the drums sound incredibly hollow, while what you feel should be surging guitars, sound more like something out of an album laced with jangly Americana and lightweight grunge at the same time. Song-wise, the vocals are right up front, sometimes emo, sometimes ballad, always clear but lacking any real depth, while the song s themselves try so hard to be "different", but all that gets more and more watered down as the album continues, replaced by the more "established, if somewhat angular" post-hardcore stuff that they seemed to be trying to re-invent or from which they seem to be trying to escape. Either way, they have a lot to say, a funny way of saying it in terms of arrangement and production, and whether or not it will impinge on your consciousness for any length of time, is really up to you to decide once you hear it.
SPEED THEORY – Hit The Dirt
The Midlands in the heart of England has long been a bastion for up and coming metal bands of all descriptions – and here we have a nu-hardcore metal band from Wolverhampton who deliver an out of control jet fighter of an album with punishing rhythms, superheated guitar leads and hollered vocals that you can just about make out in terms of the lyrics. The rolling hardcore drumming allied to bass work that threatens to tear down the walls, is topped with steaming guitar leads and roaring riffing, while the vocals are actually on the enjoyable side of shouted and hollered, making this one incendiary brew of holocaust proportions that you can enjoy as much in the safety of you own home as on the ear-bleeding experience of a late-night metal disco. The real ace up this band’s sleeve is that they do exercise a sense of dynamics in all of this, wanting to write songs rather than just provide a wall of sound where the song matters about as much as last week’s leftovers. For such blistering hardcore, there’s a real sense of warmth to it all, a human touch at the heart of a raging inferno. I found it absolutely riveting, and definitely one of the best of its kind I’ve heard in ages. From fans of Panters and Slipknot to early Metallica and Machine Head, you’ll all get a highly charged sea of pleasure from the whole of this excellent album.
STRAIN- Taking The Strain CD
The opening salvo of guttural vocals and thick molasses-like riffs would give the impression of ensuing death metal, but when the intro gives way to a driving and foreceful hurricane of hardcore guitar-driven rhythmic thunder, you change your mind as the strangled vocals deliver the lyrics with a hollered scream, half singing the song, going more for effect than emotion, unless of course you class a high-register yowl as emotive. The pace settles back before it all builds once more, amid a blitz of guitars that try to solo but the vocals head off all over it. The next track is "That Which I Despise", and this goes for a more straight forward old-skool metal arrangement with the emphasis more onharder edged guitar work and pounding rhythms, while the vocalist continues to refuse to live in anything other than death metal heaven (or hell) and continues to deliver the goods in this howling anguish of a strangled vocal that will either have you leaping about the place or reaching for the "off" switch - no half way house here. This combination of playing and singing is pretty well what you get for the album. The tracks are crushingly heavay, mostly mid-paced, occasionally conveying a more stoner edge, occasionally going all-out for a detah metal approach and then, even more occasionally, glimpsing into the past of metal giants of a harder nature. All in all, it's strong but the success is entirely revolving around those vocals, so get a listen and make your own mind up.
TAKOTA – Satellite CD Single
Four minutes of anthemic emo from an American band that manage to produce something with a chorus that really hammers it home to your head and heart. The sound is rock solid as the band flies through a seas of storming riff-driven rock, sounding somewhere between a cross between FFAF and Foo Fighters, starting silently with rippling keys and jangly guitar, before the band blasts in, the vocals take centre stage, the guitars drop back as the verse ensues, only to stride in when the end of verse and high-flying chorus break out, and the whole thing takes off like a rocket. Solid, cohesive, memorable and danceable – what more could you want out of grade-A emo-laced quality rock!
THE FIRST – THE FIRST CD-EP
Opens powerfully enough and maintains that pretty well throughout the first track, “Never Said”, with its cruising verses leading into electrifying choruses as they try to put the whole world into an emo-metal laced song, including a couple of instrumental breaks, thoroughly impassioned vocals, a sea of swirling riffery and rhythmic drive, and it’s all hot stuff but the vocal is produced a tad “dry”, and although it makes all the right moves, the identity is missing to take it above the rest. The lyrics are good, and they have a great sense of dynamics, particularly so in the excellent “Tonight” where the initial impact drops back for a few seconds of guitar-led restraint before the band piles in and really takes off on the next part of the song, this now showing that they do have what it takes and, for me, better than the lead track. Finally, “The Same Sky” starts slower with chiming guitar chords, but almost immediately the band power in with a huge wave of guitars-driven vastness, before dropping down, allowing the vocal to deliver a few seconds of ballad before the band pile back in, harmonies are added and the whole track flies like a slow-motion rocket, as much majestic anthemic as high-powered, more smouldering intensity than raging inferno, but a fantastic guitar sound from the dual guitar leads. Going back and forth between these peaks, it remains an outstanding track from a band with much promise.
THE TITLE THE AUTHOR – Our Research Explains It All
It’s getting to the point where you think there has to be some factory in Wales that creates, produces and moulds nu-metal and emo bands according to the customers needs. Want a raging torrent? No problem, sir. Want something more dynamic? Piece of cake, sir. Songs? We’ve got them by the ton!
But that implies production-line rock – and this band is definitely not that.
We get a quite atmospheric intro that takes us into “She’s An Addict” and are introduced to a world of swirling guitars and driving rhythms with vocals that contain all the anthemic feel for which this style of emo-laced rock has become known. You might expect the band to break out into a hurricane but they don’t, electing to keep things firmly in check, letting the song drive itself. On “Art Of The Possible”, another soaring slice of emo action, they increase the intensity and power up, but the vocals really fly over the scything riffs and solid rhythms. There’s no hook as such, not even any real chorus, just a song that emerges, flies and disappears into the horizon, leaving you glad you saw it and hoping that it comes back one day. The spirit of seventies Welsh band Budgie is evoked next, as we are launched into a trademark acoustic intro that they used to do following a hard rocker, only here, the band feature this as part of the whole picture as the track adds solid rhythms and jangly guitar to the acoustic, as emotive vocals rise from the picture and form this gorgeously emotional song, a slice of almost slow-motion heaven that touches your heart, lifts you up and takes you off – just one fantastic song that is truly timeless. Following a 2 minute link piece, the band finally unleash the firepower on the title track and, after all the potential, it’s like a beautiful release as the song takes off amid a squall of burning bass, crunching drums and furious guitar leads, the vocals gliding strongly on top to provide yet another mesmerising track. For “Did she even notice”, they go even further into the power stakes complete with guest vocals from Bullet For My Valentine’s Jay, on a song that ends the main body of the album on as natural a high as you could have wanted. The presence of a heartfelt bonus acoustic track at the end, actually complete the real picture rather well, in a sense taking you right back to the beginning, and leaving you with the overriding feeling that you really have to play it all over again. It’s a superb album, cleverly constructed, well arranged, written and played.DAVID R BLACK – Hearts And Stars
There’s something about hearing an album where the combination of song-writing, arranging, playing, singing and production, all wrapped up in an unstoppable adrenaline rush of rockin’ proportions, that stops you in your tracks and leaves you jaw-dropped in amazement as song after glorious song just erupts into your consciousness and refuse to let go – ever! This is one such album. Who does it sound like? Oh hell, how the heck would I know – who cares anyway – it’s just sensational. There’s this trio who
whip up such a level of excitement on storm-force tracks that really just stand as they are – great songs set to contemporary indie-rock arrangements that allow the guitar, bass and drums to come shining through to superb degree. That churning sea of guitar riffs and leads set to dynamic twists and turns on songs that are consistent as they are cohesive, heavy but not metal, furious but not hardcore, indie but on fire and vocals that really take off to perfection, all provides a set of 12 tracks into which you dive headlong and stay under until the experience is over. Some of the songs have such a great sense of urgency and angst to them that the tension mixed with the adrenaline is enough to give you a heart attack if it was any more than three or four minutes long. The guitar sound throughout the album is amazing and on fire while the production has created one of the best rhythm section sounds on an indie-rock album that you’ll hear. This is talent personified from a band that can really write a stunning song – 12 of the things, in fact – and the enjoyment you’ll get out of this surging set of breathtaking songs, will keep you happy for ages to come.
YOUR CREATION – The Line Ends Here
Wiltshire quintet who are the angry mob – the ones who come looking for you when your time has come. Armed with 10 songs and the ability to use them, the band shoot each song out with awesome rifle power rhythms and scything dual guitar work which never let up. The vocals are growled and hollered as you seek understanding and enlightenment, while the songs are founded on beds of rock solid rhythms with an approach somewhere between pinpoint accuracy and scattergun as this rolling juggernaut of heavy duty bass and massively crunching drums drives inexorably forward. The guitars cut through on waves of buzz-saw riffing as the pendulum of power descends and the angry guitar work takes on a shape that is positively menacing, the roar filing every part of the musical spectrum, as the supercharged overload of guitar blitzing continues unabated. Above all this the anger that are the vocals, rise up and take on evil dimensions, sucking you in and pulling you under, as the eruption of energy intensifies. This is massive sounding metal at an awesome level, the effect devastating and the execution precise, efficient and swift.
The line does, indeed, end here!!