Every now and then, an album arrives from a band you have never before heard of, and completely blows you away. This is one such album!
This is indeed a ‘journey into sound’; a journey that begins and ends in punk, but along the way passes through garage, hardcore, grunge and rock stopping only briefly to fill up on attitude and – only once (bonus track ‘Before The Frost’) – to draw breath.
The album opens in explosive fashion with ‘Nerve Tonic,’ a basic, old school punk song that incorporates a brilliant ‘hardcore’ shouted chorus. This sets the tone for what’s to follow, and while not sounding especially like any other specific bands (except one – see later) it is easy to see where they draw their inspiration.
‘The Holy Fucking Moment,’ maintains the punk ethos as spouted by Suicide Machines. ‘Fingers and Martyrs’ like several other tracks features heavy bass lines and in this respect it is easy to appreciate where the PR Company is coming from when they make comparison to The Murder City Devils (who boasted Pretty Girls Make Graves bassist Derek Fudesco in their ranks.) However, this particular track has more of an ‘epic’ feel, with a galloping beat and building to big dramatic, almost choral backing vocals – like something Muse would do.
‘White Noise Melody’ starts out slowly, but gains in strength before inviting the rasping vocals which by the time the first chorus has been reached are reminiscent of Rancid at their finest. And then follows possibly the best track on the album, ‘Wall Of A Song’ which begins anonymously enough but quickly takes the form of ‘Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues’ by mclusky. Shouted lyrics over frantic rhythmic handclaps are an exciting feature.
‘Hearts and Wires’ pegs the pace back a little to begin with, the guitar taking a more chugging form, though in the main, the vocals are still delivered in the shouted / screamed ‘hardcore’ style of Dan Sanfey from the now sadly missed Five Knuckle.
‘No Soul’ tips the hat to fellow Seattle-ites, Nirvana in a slow paced track before ‘Rise and Shine,’ takes a leaf from The Clash’s guide to song-writing and mixes in the rasping skacore vocal style of Stza Crack from Leftover Crack. Shake in a couple of Phil Spector inspired interludes and you have a pretty damn fine four minutes or so in store. Possibly THIS is the best track on the album. Decisions!
‘Dead Man’s Drink’ as you may deduce from the title takes on the form of a ‘pirate’ song – at least in vocal style anyway. This is followed by ‘Cave Of The Auger Tree’ which sounds like a Screamo version of a slow Nirvana song. ‘Rockets And Knots’ keeps the screamo mood moving along at a faster pace, which is followed by the more ‘conventional,’ rock opening of ‘Cold Comfort (In The Night). However, though the ‘classic rock’ guitar riffs remain, the vocals are drawn back to hardcore / screamo and once again the collision – or rather, I should say ‘fusion’ of two alien genres of music is masterful.
‘Here Comes America,’ is the last of the tracks according to the album sleeve at least. It’s a pretty straight forward punk track with cynical lyrics, and incorporates a slow, discordant interpretation of ‘God Bless America.’ There then follows a ‘hidden’ acoustic track called ‘Before The Frost.’ It’s quite a contrast to all that precedes it, but is really a really pleasant way of ending the album. I’m not sure if the vocalist is the same as sings the earlier ‘hardcore’ lines, but I like to think it is since it shows there are more strings to this band’s bow than meets the eye. (I know it will be by sheer coincidence, but this track is similar in style to the Glasgow based band Correcto.)
There may still be eleven months left of 2009, but I am willing to bet that Hello From The Radio Wasteland will remain in my Top 10 albums of the year come December.