This is a positively riff-tastic set. One fears for the safety of the studio in which this was recorded.
One imagines blazing hills and blood-red skies all around, and a burning musical heart within, no doubt.
These guys like their blood lust in print and in music. One imagines the fretboards being splattered red and microphones being left glowing with pipes of fury, as these guys sought to capture the very essence of their sound. Huge sonic waves in their heads coming crashing down onto plastic and mp3s.
All of which makes it sound like some heavy, grungy, pop version of Hades. All riffs, no originality. All guts and no ideas. And that’s not true. The riffs are cast-iron gold and little gems like the Indian harp on ‘Unexceptional’ (yes, these guys like their side orders of irony as well, folks) and the short, sharp, choppy jabs and stabs of funk throughout keep one’s ears pricked up and one’s heart ably pounding.
There are rhythms here which make your head pound – this music does not means business, this music means WAR!!! Don’t eat a heavy meal too soon before putting this set on, otherwise you will be seeing it sooner than you might like!
Vocalist Peter Tuthill must also have an iron larynx. No way could any human throat stand up to the demands that Tuthill makes of his pipes here. After hearing so may recent metal vocalists who seem too shy and frightened of the songs in front of them, it is truly refreshing to hear one who truly relishes ripping a song to shreds. Despite boast of their “sheer intensity and brimming guile”. You’d better damned well believe them.
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