SWINGIN’ UTTERS – Poorly Formed

Swingin' UttersBranching out from their street punk beginnings, over the course of several albums, Swingin’ Utters have constantly evolved.  They may have become more commercial with the passing years, but if 2013’s ‘Poorly Formed’ tells us anything, it is that vocalist Johnny Bonnel and company know how to pen potentially very memorable tunes. Crashing through fourteen tracks in approximately half an hour, a couple of one-line choruses aside, ‘Poorly Formed’ is anything but.  Its running time may be slightly lean – the album seeming to zip by in the blink of an eye – and it may be more varied than some of their past works, but, most importantly, there’s absolutely no filler.

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I AM I – Event Horizon

I AM II Am I is a band fronted by former Dragonforce mouthpiece ZP Theart and featuring former Quireboys/The Union drummer Phil Martini (aka Phil Martin).  ‘Event Horizon’, their self-released debut, isn’t just a re-tread of Dragonforce works.  With this band, Theart leans, in theory, towards something more melodic, offering huge European sounding power/pomp metal, given a huge send off in the production department by Masterplan man Roland Grapow.  With those hard facts out of the way, some of you have already stopped reading, since Grapow’s unrelenting production style combined with Theart’s mere presence means that I Am I are unlikely to appeal to an audience outside of this band’s particular power metal subgenre.

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