On this 2016 release, among other things, Sam Alone sets out to recount tales of blue collar strife. Armed with a booming voice and a guitar he calls his “working class rifle”, the Portuguese performer could possibly be accused of trying just that little bit too hard to appeal to the working class listener. And with an obvious love of Springsteen, his sounds are familiar sounds enough, but does he – and his band The Gravediggers – have what it takes to make an impression, especially treading a path so many have stomped down before?
RHYN – Absence EP
Working through a variety of styles and inflences on their debut EP, Buckinghamshire’s Rhyn are an interesting band. At first, their music displays a heaviness, but as ‘Absence’ plays through, each passing number shows a slightly different aspect to their songcraft. Here is a band who are capable of complexity, but understands that complexity for the sake of it just isn’t that interesting (Dream Theater, please take note). And although they prove straight away they can be crunchy and a little arty (as per Hawk Eyes and the earliest Biffy Clyro), at least one of their members understands the overriding importance of a chorus.
BRYAN ADAMS – Get Up!
When you’ve topped the singles chart for a record breaking sixteen weeks, career-wise, there’s nowhere to go but down. For Bryan Adams, this was certainly the case. None of the albums he released in the wake of ‘Waking Up The Neighbours’ and its world dominating Robin Hood single in the early 90s were a patch on most of their predecessors. There were glimmers of goodness, of course: his collaborative single with ex-Spice Girl Melanie C remains a career highlight and 1999’s parent album ‘On a Day Like Today’ was pleasant enough, but generally speaking, it’s just a few tracks here and there which impress from then on in. Most of his twenty first century output possibly doesn’t resonate with anyone but the more hardcore fan. 2014’s ‘Tracks of My Years‘ was especially grim; aside from a few examples, the covers album represents either a spent force or contractual obligation and for Adams, it was a genuine nadir.
KRASSEVILLE – Nous Somme Faux
If members of a black metal band embarked on a project that sounded like a film soundtrack and then also channelled various bits of early 80s goth and Nick Cave, that would be a bit of a jumble, but a fairly cool one nonetheless. Such a rambling bag of ideas is the closest approximation of describing the sounds with which French band Krasseville fill their 2015 release ‘Nous Somme Faux’. It’s avant-garde for sure, yet at the same time, it’s also strangely listenable.
EUJENICS – Humanism
Nearing the end of 2014, The Creep Void released their ‘Elevation of Idiocy‘ EP. The band’s second – and final – release, its featured tracks were head and shoulders above anything on their ‘Apothesis’ album from 2012. With a decent production and some great riffs, it promised even more for their third release…but the band broke up, leaving such promises unfulfilled.