Robyn Writes

Opium Lord – The Calendrical Cycle (Prologue: The Healer) [EP]

2013. For a while, I despaired. If we weren’t enduring an influx of faux post-hardcore ‘haircuts over content’, we were standing back as kids forgot how to breathe between growls and perfected their sporty-spice-style high kicks. Where was the passion, the conviction, the direction… the brutality? The big names in doom and hardcore continued to do no wrong, but I was longing for something new and hungry to burst onto the scene and blow the dust from my CD shelves. The answer was simple; Leeds-based hardcore-centric TDON records were scooping up some corkers and were ready to drip-feed us some gold. Don’t get me wrong, I love doom, I love sludge, I love anything that sounds like gargling brick dust, but I was long bored of stoner-centric lyricism and imagery. There’s more chance of me fitting a moose up my arse than touching a bong, so as much as I appreciate so many ‘insert ‘bong’ into bandname here’ acts, I often feel a bit of a wall develop as I delve deeper into many bands’ releases. Thankfully, Opium Lord seem to have shunned the ‘let’s put a goblin, planet or decapitated woman in there’ bandwagon and have come up with a brutal, bleak, heavy and gorgeously compelling sound all of their own. There are no cop-outs, no cheap laughs, no novelty imagery and no lull in each song’s aural assault.

The Calendrical Cycle (Prologue: The Healer) is merely a two-track EP, but delivers more in nine and a half minutes than many other bands do in a career. ‘Heroin Swirls’ feels heavier than lead, but rolls along with an unexpected groove, similar to early Sabbath… after an acid bath and a nervous breakdown. Vocally, we’re in a drone-free zone, with vocal lines often spat like poison darts or audibly torn apart. The whole EP is comfortably unnerving; the thick bassline holds you to your seat, while the vocals flay themselves apart. ‘Street Labs’ however, is on another level. With vocals taking a slightly black-metal turn at times, an often simplistic underlying riff quickly turns a slow, dragging break into a pounding, throbbing earth-shaker of a track. ‘Street Labs’ is vicious, powerful and impossible to sit still to. It’s easy to close your eyes and feel as though you’re bathing in the raw edges of a sound much larger than you’ve ever known.

Opium Lord are heavy, honed and as subtle as a brick to the chest. While we wait for the full album to manifest itself, The Calendrical Cycle will certainly do nicely as a stopgap.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Polar – Inspire Create Destroy [EP]

Polar‘s forthcoming EP signifies a move from releasing via a traditional label and instead, the band have teamed up with Drop Dead Clothing, well known for their connections to the alternative music scene. While this isn’t Drop Dead’s first time releasing material from a heavier band – they did a bundle with Architects a couple of years ago – the brand has been focusing on showcasing a wider variety of genres in recent times, featuring acts like Draper and Louie Knuxx. This return to something heavier is an excellent move for Drop Dead – not only is it reconnecting with the culture that the brand was borne out of, but it also means that a lot more people are going to rightly fall in love with Polar.

Inspire Create Destroy is just three tracks long, consisting of ‘Inspire’, ‘Create’ and ‘Destroy’. Clever, innit? ‘Inspire’ instantly commands your attention, opening with some heavy distortion and some powerful riffs. Woody’s vocals consistently have the perfect tone for this kind of music; at times, it even sounds like he’s screaming two notes at once, creating a deeply textured and ferocious effect. This especially comes into play with the central lyric, ‘lose faith in everything – trust no one’, and holds a great deal of power. If ‘Inspire’ is the vanguard of this EP, then ‘Create’ is the ensuing battlecry as the rest of the units rush in to decimate the other side. A thrilling and perfectly crafted song, Polar give it all they’ve got. They know when to pull out the melody, they know when to throw down. The level of musicianship on show here (and really, throughout the whole record) is nothing short of phenomenal. In the dead centre of the EP, Polar break into a gang cry of ‘Inspire! Create! Destroy’. This mantra sums up Polar’s intent in the UK alternative scene perfectly; in time, Polar will no doubt come to inspire a great deal of young musicians, they create some of the most daring and powerful music, and they’ll destroy anything that’ll stand in their way. ‘Destroy’ is slower paced than the previous tracks, but if anything, this amplifies its message and allows for those beautiful guitar lines to come through loud and clear. It’s impossible to listen to this without throwing up a Judd Nelson style fist pump at the end.

To put it simply, Inspire Create Destroy is a masterclass in melodic hardcore. Bands like Bring Me The Horizon are dominating the airwaves at the moment and with this EP, Polar have the potential to come out swinging at the forefront of the UK alternative scene. Polar inject a sense of grandeur into their music that transcends further than the pit, and combined with their explosive live show, this EP should make them huge. And deservedly so.

5 out of 5 high fives!

Belgrade – s/t

Formed from the ashes of several Philadelphia post-hardcore acts, Belgrade are five guys to whom aggression is evidently no longer a valid outlet to express their emotions. The quintet it seems, has finally succumbed to maturity and the band sounds all the better for it as they manage to maintain a commendable distance from the potential horrors of blandness and Coldplay-like attributes. Their self-titled record is a relatively mellow affair and for the most part the band’s tracks are up-tempo outings although any grand emotional outpourings of happiness remain measured and free from hysterical gestures. There’s nothing on the record that immediately reaches out, grabs you by the scruff of the neck and deplores you with wild eyes and a shower of spittle that “this record deserves your attention right now!” Instead, Belgrade have presented us with a fully formed record that makes plain that the band have already discovered and honed in on their “sound”, despite it being perhaps a little derivative.

The talents of the band members are immediately tangible – they may not be virtuosos, but the guys certainly know how to craft tracks with depth as well as substance. What’s more, Belgrade never allow themselves to explore too far into the musical wilderness; reeling in those meandering guitars before they reach abstract territory whilst still prodding and teasing at the groups musical boundaries. Everything saunters along pleasantly, although it takes several listens before the record stops sounding like forty minutes of inoffensive indie and individual songs can be distinguished amongst the lethargic strumming and severely reverbed lead guitar that carve out pretty little melodies over breezy vocals.

Belgrade stick resolutely to standard verse/chorus/verse song structures, perhaps limiting themselves in that respect and inviting the possibility of accusations of an over-familiarity between the tracks which due to their mellow nature seems a perfectly reasonable criticism. Even so, Belgrade is a record of sumptuous fluidity – effortlessly making the transition from each track to the next in the most carefree of manners. They’re not exactly versatile, but when you sound so assured as Belgrade it becomes a moot point. Belgrade are a band to soundtrack your carefree summer days whilst providing enough sonic texture to demand to be heard through headphones in order to fully experience the bands mesmerizing prowess.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Inherit The Stars – We Were Made To Walk The Skies

It seems not a week can go by without finding myself being introduced to a new metal band from Sheffield to listen to; it might even be getting to the point where it is worth my while to pack up and move there. This week’s chosen gem from the depths of Yorkshire is five-piece Inherit The Stars with their debut album, We Were Made To Walk The Skies. For a band who label themselves ‘metal’, it throws up a couple of surprises.

Although they’re happy to describe their sound as metal, the variation across the album makes it impossible to pigeon-hole them. You could opt for the safe bet of calling them post hardcore since there are some scattered screamed vocals; several of the instrumentals and breakdowns would have no injustice done to them by being labelled metalcore and yet, there are some more melodic sections that could comfortably be bopped along to by pop-punkers. Regardless of the ultimately meaningless task of slapping a genre them, what Inherit The Stars have here is a solid debut album which gives dominant role to melodies and each tracks overall rhythm, albeit with the inevitable combo of screaming and riffs as well. They do say that they are metal after all.

The album opens with standout tune ‘If We Fall, We’ll Fall Together’, showcasing a rumbling beat, sweet riffs and catchy, melodic vocals. From their ‘metal’ label, it isn’t quite what you’d expect as an introduction to their debut, but with the pacey riffs and heavy drumming it is possibly a more radio friendly release; transcending into something darker as the song comes to close. The heavier end lays the platform for the screamed vocals to break forward on second track (and first single) ‘Citizens Of Earth’. An unremitting assault of post hardcore music: the band begins to deliver on their promise of more metal with suspense building drums complimented by a melodic backing, again ending on a loud note with a metalcore instrumental.

Showing that there is more complexity to their music, Inherit The Stars slow things down as they get into the meat of the album. ‘Facing The Fire’ leads in with a silky synth line, but relies on the chorus to really hook listeners in with an electronic backdrop and violins to give it a slight symphonic edge. The orchestral element joined with distorted guitars show that it is no surprise the band lists Fightstar as an influence and it is probably one of the more commercial tracks on the album. Maintaining the calmer vibes, ‘Hold Your Breath’ carries on in the same vein supplying a catchy rhythm with blended backing vocal harmonies, topped off with a generous helping of punchy riffs.
‘Through The Fallout’ is the one truly different track on the album. Even amongst the bands’ transitioning sound, it stands in total contrast to all that has gone before or follows on after. It is a heartfelt, whispered and stark song; with heavy focus on the haunting vocals and a resonating sound created by the reintroduction of violins, it’s vaguely reminiscent of later Linkin Park.

As a first album, you could question whether Inherit The Stars try to do a bit too much. It is great to be able to show off the talents each member has and the band’s overall aptitude for changing their sound from an aggressive metal vibe to a bouncing pop-punk number is undoubtedly impressive. They may do better in their early days to really nail down a sound that works for them, variety is the spice of life and they clearly have an abundance, but sometimes it can help to pick out a target audience and say “Hey, you guys will LOVE this!”. Having said that, with elements of pop-punk, post hardcore and metal, there is a little bit of something for everyone in this album; while not reinventing music as we know it, the successful blend of genres makes this one well worth putting the speakers on for and turning the volume up to full!

3.5 out of 5 high fives!

Everything On Red – Satellites

This isn’t exactly Everything On Red’s first rodeo. They’ve been playing their brand of fast and furious punk rock for the past six years. However, this is their longest record yet, having previously released just (or should I say, predominately) EPs and mini-albums. (NOTE: It has come to my attention that this is incorrect, but all my hours of web trawling didn’t come up with tracklistings yesterday. I fail, but trust me, I’m about to make up for it.) It’s a big change in modus operandi, and arguably, with Satellites comes great change. The keyboards are gone. There’s no gimmicks to be found in Satellites, but instead, there’s a band with a message to deliver – and they are not to be ignored.

At first, I was a bit sceptical. I really like synths and ditching a signature element of your sound completely is a risky move. Opening track and lead single ‘Quoth The Raven’ certainly had me quite excited – a fast paced punk paralyser filled with rollicking good riffs and a chorus to die for – and it’s clear that Everything On Red haven’t lost their knack for killer harmonies either. By the time I got to ‘Tooth And Nail’, I had completely forgotten that they had used keyboards at all in their career. It’s extremely difficult to pick a standout track from the ten belters on offer, but ‘Tooth And Nail’ is potentially it; while Satellites isn’t an overtly political album, ‘Tooth And Nail’ perfectly sums up the discontent of 21st century Britain through frenetic, furious vocals and intelligent lyrics. ‘If I Had A Hi-Fi’ does much the same, with some groovy bass and a Zebrahead inspired chorus. Almost every song on Satellites has one fantastic bit that you want to cling onto and scrawl all over your notebooks/arms/face – in title track ‘Satellites’, it’s ‘Please comprehend that this love lives like violence’, in ‘We Belong This Way’, it’s the sudden burst into a desperately chanted ‘WE BELONG!’. And then there are the moments that you can’t write down, but the ones that inspire you to do a Judd Nelson fist pump there and then, like James Rathnell’s superb drumming on the aforementioned ‘We Belong This Way’. There’s too many gems to point out in one review, as much as I would love to just compile a list of every single little bit that I loved about this record. But this is an album that you want to explore every single facet of; on the surface, it’s great sounding music, but with every listen, you uncover something new and bold and thoroughly exciting.

Everything On Red have certainly grown as songwriters; everything is timed just right and each track fits into the album effortlessly. Satellites is far more polished than previous efforts and this new clarity just amplifies their brilliance even more. This is the essential British punk rock album of the year – miss it at your peril.

4.5 out of 5 high fives!