Within a year of forming, Bedfordshire based alt-rock metal band SEASONS (always capitalised) had released two EPs and embarked upon four tours. Obviously, they believe that it’s the hard work that gets you places, but what’s perhaps more impressive is how professional the band sounded straight off the starting blocks. Their second EP, ‘What Comes Around’ really captures a band keen to display a well honed, multi-layered sound while simultaneously really pushing for a distinctive identity. Sure, you’ll hear bits of other rock bands in there, from both alt-rock and emo spheres, and there’s a few clear influences, but rarely anything that feels like a direct lift.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
ALLFATHER – Bless The Earth With Fire
Formed in 2014, Allfather came together over a shared interest of “vikings, anti-fascism and crisps”. It’s good to know the band have a sense of humour, because their 2016 release ‘Bless The Earth With Fire’ is not one to be taken lightly. Its six songs – if, indeed, they can be called songs, rather than an extended collection of devastating riffs – are heavy, dense and sludgy in equal measure. In short, if you’re a total riff junkie and value the weight and presence of a riff over almost everything else, you’ve come to the right place.
KURT BAKER COMBO – Let’s Go Wild!
Kurt Baker is a very prolific musician and songwriter. In the six year stretch between 2012 and Easter 2018, whether solo or part of a band, he’s released the equivalent of at least two albums per year. Against the odds, most of the material has been great.
Relocating from the US to Spain in 2013, Kurt formed the Kurt Baker Combo, a band who would ultimately inject a little more of a garage rock ethic into his gift for a power pop hook. Their first record, 2016’s ‘In Orbit’, was a little fuzzier than expected and took a bit more getting into than any of Baker’s earlier works, but still carried great choruses and a fiery energy throughout. Working to a similar formula, the Combo’s 2018 record ‘Let’s Go Wild!’, if anything, is even fuzzier. Given the rate Baker has released records, it was only a matter of time before one of his albums showed a couple of flaws. This is that record. In terms of production, some of the shinier power pop elements are absorbed by dense guitars and a world of vocal filters that sometimes make the material a little more difficult to process.
RENE SG – Fucko EP
“If it’s too fast…you’re too slow!” proudly proclaims the blurb behind Rene SG’s 2018 EP. “Fast” isn’t exactly the word: these dutch punks give Zeke and Speadealer a run for their money by packing a whole album’s worth of tunes onto just seven inches of plastic.
Not all of the tunes are new at the time of release, however. ‘Fucko’ reissues the whole of RSG’s debut and throws in a few other tracks for good measure. That said, the bulk of the material will still be unfamiliar to those outside of the Netherlands, so any kind of reissue and re-promotion seems welcome.
ZEKE – Hellbender
Most people’s introduction to hardcore speedpunks Zeke was the ‘Super Speed Racing’ LP back in the mid 90s. It was an album that did exactly what it said on the tin: by packing in over twenty tracks in almost as many minutes, it wasn’t so much a long player as a sonic thrill ride set to shake teeth and bowels loose, all with a knowing grin. Zeke continued to bash out similar albums and sought after 7”s much to the delight of fans over the next decade, before bowing out with a final album ‘Til The Living End’ in 2004. A handful of retrospective tracks crawled out after that, but it seemed we’d heard the last of Zeke…but, to be fair, it’s impossible to keep up such a pace without reaching burnout. Thinking about it, it’s amazing they lasted as long as they did.