Puppy – The
Goat
7.5/10
Best Tracks: Vengeance,
Entombed, Demons
FFO: Helmet, Weezer, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard
Over the
past few years, Puppy have established themselves as one of Britain’s finest young
bands through a number of stellar EPs and a cracking live set. Their debut
album is long-awaited, and serves as a culmination (and celebration) of all
they’ve achieved in recent times, but there’s still the feeling that the band
are only just getting started.
Puppy’s
unique brand of riff-heavy, smooth-voiced alternative rock is the finest it’s
ever been on The Goat’s first half in
particular. The opening salvo of Black Hole,
Vengeance, and Poor Me showcases the very best of the band’s sound; choruses that
could have come from a Def Leppard or Bon Jovi "best-of" album backed up by
stomping riffs which would make Tony Iommi proud. Don’t let these comparisons
to bands of yesteryear put you off; the songs feel timeless, fitting into a
perfect little niche of their own in the modern musical landscape. A reworked version of future
classic Entombed sits in the middle
of the record (already a fan favourite for those who know Puppy) like a diamond
in a gold mine. This song has the dirtiest riff of all time and I will not be
told any different.
The Goat isn’t without its’ fair share of filler,
though, and it could easily be argued that the album leans heavily on the first
half, just pulling it all back together at the end with Demons. Tracks like Bathe In
Blood and Nightwalker almost slip from
memory just as soon as they end, ultimately lacking the brilliant catchiness of some of their predecessors. Still, what sticks on Puppy’s debut record ends up really sticking. Some of these hooks will be buzzing around your mind for days to come, and on the whole there’s a
lot more good here than forgettable. An admirable first LP from one of the
country’s most exciting acts.
Bring Me The Horizon – amo
3/10
Best Tracks: nihilist blues (feat.
Grimes), wonderful life (feat. Dani Filth)
FFO: Halsey, You Me At Six, The 1975
I’ll get
this out the way early on – I don’t care that BMTH are a pop band now. There
are loads of amazing artists out there that are making creative, wonderful pop
music these days who I’m happy to rave about (Panic! At The Disco, Everything
Everything, and Bad Sounds are just a few worth your time). Bear in mind, then,
that I’m not quite that “kid on the ‘gram in a Black Dahlia tank”, as some of
you might think.
All that
being said… amo is pretty poor.
It’s an
obvious natural progression from their latest effort, That’s The Spirit, in that Bring Me have almost entirely ditched
the combinative style of metal, radio-friendly rock, and electronic elements
which made them so good on albums like There
Is A Hell… and Sempiternal. Now
instead they amalgamate pop, electro, indie, and incredibly dull, bog-standard
rock (in the fashion of You Me At Six or Tonight Alive). It’s clear that
they’ve attempted to experiment, and they’ve spouted off about doing so enough
in the press, but all it comes to is bland, middle-of-the-road songs like medicine and mother tongue. I will grant them one success in the form of nihilist blues, a moody track driven by
throbbing synth and held together by a guest performance from Grimes which ends
up being amo’s best song by miles -
simply because it actually provides something new to latch on to.
It’s not as
if there’s absolutely nothing left of the band Bring Me The Horizon used to be
on this record. The down-tuned guitars on wonderful
life at least provide a bit of bounce and energy (which the rest of the
album lacks massively), and it ends up sounding like a discarded Don Broco
B-side. They also try something similar on MANTRA,
but it falls horribly flat on the chorus in particular, with Oli’s vocals coming
across as nothing but overblown and straining. On the whole, too, the lyrics on
amo are pretty hilarious. Whether
intentional or not, the primary source of entertainment here comes from lines
like “(everybody’s full of) sugar, honey, ice, and tea” and the aforementioned
“Black Dahlia tank” chorus of heavy metal.
My
expectations for amo were unbelievably
low, and Bring Me have managed to live up to them suitably. If you’re a fan of
tedious music on the whole, then I’d suggest you check it out, because this
album somehow encapsulates the worst of four or five different genres. I'll still take it over That's The Spirit, though.
Judiciary – Surface
Noise
7/10
Best Tracks: Temple, Pure Fury, Social Crusade
FFO: Year of the Knife, Incendiary, Knocked Loose
Sometimes
you just need an album which makes you want to roundhouse kick a grizzly bear
in the fucking teeth. In this regard, Judiciary have you covered.
West Texan
hardcore made with a chip on its shoulder, Surface
Noise is the kind of balls-to-the-wall, metal-influenced hardcore which
slots perfectly into the crowd of up-and-coming bands making the genre brutal
again. The riffs are made for two-stepping, spin-kicking, and foot-first
stagediving, while the vocals consistently sound as if they’re being physically
wrenched from the frontman’s throat. It’s not all meat-and-potatoes, though,
with guitar solos springing up left and right (to varying degrees of
effectiveness depending on the song) and killer guest vocals from Bryan Garris
of Knocked Loose amongst other modern hardcore stalwarts.
Whilst it
won’t revolutionise a genre, and some tracks stand out more than others,
Judiciary’s latest effort won’t disappoint if you’re looking for some
hot-blooded savagery to break your neck to.
Press Club – Late Teens
(N.B. This album technically came out last year down under, but only
got worldwide release this past Friday. I’m going by my European scrub release
date.)
8.5/10
Best Tracks: Suburbia, Crash, Stay Low
FFO: PUP, The Smith Street Band, Wolf Alice
Press Club,
for me, have come out of absolutely nowhere and stolen album of the week from
under Puppy’s nose here. Impressively, for a band I wasn’t even aware existed
until Friday, their debut LP Late Teens
had me hooked from the word go and didn’t let up for one second.
The slightly
distorted vocal mix might put some people off, but really it makes frontwoman Natalie
Foster’s performance that little bit more powerful, cementing her steadfastly
at the heart and soul of the album. It’s bitter, intensely personal, and coated
in nostalgia; I’ve never so instantly (upon first listen) wanted to scream a
set of lyrics back like the chorus of Suburbia.
Almost every song on the record is chock-full of perfect earworms that burst at
the seams with nuance and personality. Instrumentally, Press Club’s sound sits
somewhere between the raw, energetic punk of a band like PUP and the indie-rock
leanings of some of Wolf Alice’s punchier tracks (like Space & Time or Fluffy),
and fans of both will love this record.
There’s
next to nothing to complain about on Late
Teens. It’s just an incredible punk-rock album with hooks for days and
outstanding DIY-style production. You’ve got no excuse not to see this band when
they come over to the UK in April, and Late
Teens is my album of the week.
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