Beth Blade And The Beautiful Disasters - Mythos, Confession, Tragedies And Love (Beautiful Disasters Records) [Simon Black]
This is an act local to me who have really cut it over the last few years. If you’ve not come across this Cardiff melodic hard rockin’ four piece, then you may be surprised at the punch they pack. Well, I say Cardiff, as these days they are spread across the UK, but hey, we journo’s love hooks to hang things on. This record though, works and works well because it hits the big three critical success factors with a mighty crunch.First off the songs. This album in particular is notably darker than its two predecessors and from the down and grungy opener The Otherside, this record does not pull its punches. There’s a million cheerful hard rock albums out there and after the last few years the songwriter Beth clearly needs to clear her system of the darkness, and this album positively drips that at times. That doesn’t mean there’s not more upbeat and up-tempo material in there, but it’s nice to hear a record from this genre that’s more balanced lyrically and tonally and a little dig into these songs lyrics shows a deep and thoughtful emotional undercurrent that grabs you more and more with every listen.
But it’s that moodier material that wins the day for me, with Persephone, standing head and shoulders high as a track that hits the mood, whilst dripping with energy and pace. This is top notch song-writing and I really cannot fault any of the material on this record, which is refreshing given so many acts struggle with consistency of output for a full-length release after they’ve cleared the material they’ve been honing for years and have to write from scratch, but then there’s nothing like a global pandemic to provide inspiration.
The second thing that grabs you is the rather lavish production. Now a good Rock ’N’ Roll band often has a dilemma in this regard – how do you record something that retains the edginess of the style, whilst sounding like a fortune was spent on the process? Well, often that’s about the right studio and producer, because experience shows that you can throw a ton of money at stuff and fail without that magic ingredient. This record hits the mark perfectly in that regard.
Producer Nick Brine knows his knobs in that regard, given he’s worked with Thunder and Bruce Springsteen and to record in the fabled Rockfield Studios in nearby Monmouth may have added just the right level of mystique to bring out the best in the band (even though it’s not their first rodeo at the studio). This is a record that makes a refreshing change from the many more disjointed releases that have plagued the genre’s release schedules over the last 36 months as bands grappled with remote recording technologies at the expense of the fire and energy that four musos dripping with sweat in a studio always delivers…
…Which brings me to magic ingredient number three – the players themselves. This is an act that have really honed their magic over the last few years, having worked their arses off on the live circuit, although not quite to the point where they’ve become well known.
Yet… as I think that’s about to change.
The performances here are very finely honed and you can positively hear the chemistry between the players. Whilst singer/guitarist Beth McDonald is up front and loud in the mix vocally, the other instrumentals are not playing second fiddle to this, which creates warmth, fluidity and sheer raw power in the sound. Despite the fact she’s across the piece given her role as major songwriter to boot, this feels like a cohesive band, although it’s a challenge to give individual credits given that the names of the rest of the players seem to have been purged from the world wide web...!
…Which brings me to magic ingredient number three – the players themselves. This is an act that have really honed their magic over the last few years, having worked their arses off on the live circuit, although not quite to the point where they’ve become well known.
Yet… as I think that’s about to change.
The performances here are very finely honed and you can positively hear the chemistry between the players. Whilst singer/guitarist Beth McDonald is up front and loud in the mix vocally, the other instrumentals are not playing second fiddle to this, which creates warmth, fluidity and sheer raw power in the sound. Despite the fact she’s across the piece given her role as major songwriter to boot, this feels like a cohesive band, although it’s a challenge to give individual credits given that the names of the rest of the players seem to have been purged from the world wide web...!
What really makes this work is that this is an act with way more experience under their belts than the ten or so years they have been going would indicate. It took a while from inception to first album, and these folks have garnered some fabulous experience along the way (‘cos let’s face it opening for Kiss on their cruise is way up there) and this shows in the quality and emotive power of this record. Fabulous – yes, a disaster – absolutely not. 9/10
Amongst Liars - Amongst Liars (Earache Records) [Simon Black]
There came a point during the pandemic when I had stopped mourning the handful of redundant tickets I had for gigs and festivals, stopped fearing for the fact that a whole bunch of live venues were hanging by a thread, whilst the big boys muscled them out and the streaming platforms swallowed the last of any revenues the music industry had left now that touring was dead and realised that actually this could be cathartic for the business. There is a saying that if it’s not broken, don’t fix it, but the music business has been very, very broken for a very long time and indeed much of the Western world in general.
Amongst Liars - Amongst Liars (Earache Records) [Simon Black]
There came a point during the pandemic when I had stopped mourning the handful of redundant tickets I had for gigs and festivals, stopped fearing for the fact that a whole bunch of live venues were hanging by a thread, whilst the big boys muscled them out and the streaming platforms swallowed the last of any revenues the music industry had left now that touring was dead and realised that actually this could be cathartic for the business. There is a saying that if it’s not broken, don’t fix it, but the music business has been very, very broken for a very long time and indeed much of the Western world in general.
We get upset about forest fires, but sometimes do so without realising that they are part of the forest’s natural life cycle, and that they have evolved to survive them. The old must burn down to make way for the new and the cleared forest gives new shoots a chance to establish themselves that would never have managed that with the big boy trees stealing all the space and light. Admittedly, Amongst Liars would be the first to point out that natural events are positive, not ones caused by sheer human stupidity, which they look at a lot….
The pandemic was a catalyst for change, the consequences of which are still far from clear, and their effect on this business is only just really starting to show through. During 2022 bands either held back releases, cleared out the archives in a holding pattern or actually rolled up their sleeves and worked out how to adapt. The latter are the ones now thriving, so hats off if you learned how to record drums in your airing cupboard and master remote recording, but if you actually formed and built something new in this period, then you may just be something special…
Hailing from England’s South Coast this modern rock four piece formed in 2020 and have slowly built-up credibility with half a dozen singles which have notched up some noteworthy stream-play and have now cut their self-titled debut. Musically this is very stripped back riff-based modern metal, with the kind of fire and ire that Rage Against The Machine would be proud of. In many ways I am reminded of Helmet in their early days tonally, but all the obvious influences like Queens Of The Stone Age are in their loud and proud too.
Their name says it all, as this is politically fueled in-your-face music of the type that gets old farts croaking about the woke generation and in a very short time has gone onto the top of my repeat listening list. Lyrically this is full of fire, passion and political anger at what the world has become. …And not before time, is this might be the start of the moment that drags this generation away from their phones and starts getting youth angsty again.
For a debut, the production on here is crisp and precise, with the decision made to slightly overdrive Ian George’s vocals, adding that slight 90’s Industrial edge to the sound … either that, or I’ve blown my speaker cones again, which may well be the case as I’ve been listening to this a lot and loudly (along with my neighbours). And then there’s Leo Burdett’s guitar work. My RATM comment above was specific, as this guy is clearly a student of Tom Morello’s school of “how the fuck did he make that sound on a guitar?” and tracks like the closer Without Grace, with its experimentally complex arrangement is a fantastic example of this and an indication that these boys have some serious technical nonce going on under the hood, despite the stripped back bare bones illusion they are creating on the top. To be honest, I can’t fault a track on here, and even when they slow things down, there’s a core complexity and emotional fire running throughout.
Energetic and furious, making the old influences sound new and relevant, this is polemical music for this generation, and not before time. The old is dead, long live the new. 10/10
The Kut - Grit (Criminal Records) [Matt Bladen]
The Kut is a project that takes the form of a full band live but on the 2018 debut album Valley Of Thrones, multi instrumentalist, songwriter and PhD Graduate, Princess Maha handled nearly all the instrumentation. The Kut have won numerous awards for songwriting and have been featured on plenty of the places that any band would want to be such as Kerrang, BBC London, BBC Wales and Planet Rock. As well as this they have played Download, Camden Rocks and The National Lottery. That last one isn't as odd as it seems as this second album was given Arts Council funding so she could record it with her touring line up, The Kut on vocals/guitar and her women in arms in the rhythm section, though The Kut also adds bass and drums.
The pandemic was a catalyst for change, the consequences of which are still far from clear, and their effect on this business is only just really starting to show through. During 2022 bands either held back releases, cleared out the archives in a holding pattern or actually rolled up their sleeves and worked out how to adapt. The latter are the ones now thriving, so hats off if you learned how to record drums in your airing cupboard and master remote recording, but if you actually formed and built something new in this period, then you may just be something special…
Hailing from England’s South Coast this modern rock four piece formed in 2020 and have slowly built-up credibility with half a dozen singles which have notched up some noteworthy stream-play and have now cut their self-titled debut. Musically this is very stripped back riff-based modern metal, with the kind of fire and ire that Rage Against The Machine would be proud of. In many ways I am reminded of Helmet in their early days tonally, but all the obvious influences like Queens Of The Stone Age are in their loud and proud too.
Their name says it all, as this is politically fueled in-your-face music of the type that gets old farts croaking about the woke generation and in a very short time has gone onto the top of my repeat listening list. Lyrically this is full of fire, passion and political anger at what the world has become. …And not before time, is this might be the start of the moment that drags this generation away from their phones and starts getting youth angsty again.
For a debut, the production on here is crisp and precise, with the decision made to slightly overdrive Ian George’s vocals, adding that slight 90’s Industrial edge to the sound … either that, or I’ve blown my speaker cones again, which may well be the case as I’ve been listening to this a lot and loudly (along with my neighbours). And then there’s Leo Burdett’s guitar work. My RATM comment above was specific, as this guy is clearly a student of Tom Morello’s school of “how the fuck did he make that sound on a guitar?” and tracks like the closer Without Grace, with its experimentally complex arrangement is a fantastic example of this and an indication that these boys have some serious technical nonce going on under the hood, despite the stripped back bare bones illusion they are creating on the top. To be honest, I can’t fault a track on here, and even when they slow things down, there’s a core complexity and emotional fire running throughout.
Energetic and furious, making the old influences sound new and relevant, this is polemical music for this generation, and not before time. The old is dead, long live the new. 10/10
The Kut - Grit (Criminal Records) [Matt Bladen]
The Kut is a project that takes the form of a full band live but on the 2018 debut album Valley Of Thrones, multi instrumentalist, songwriter and PhD Graduate, Princess Maha handled nearly all the instrumentation. The Kut have won numerous awards for songwriting and have been featured on plenty of the places that any band would want to be such as Kerrang, BBC London, BBC Wales and Planet Rock. As well as this they have played Download, Camden Rocks and The National Lottery. That last one isn't as odd as it seems as this second album was given Arts Council funding so she could record it with her touring line up, The Kut on vocals/guitar and her women in arms in the rhythm section, though The Kut also adds bass and drums.
Recording Grit with a band means that all that touring experience oozes out of the 10 track on this record. Grit is a record where The Kut deal with independence, passion and purpose through some sneering, acerbic, attitude-filled alt rock meets punk. It's a rebellious record with punchy open chords, barbed vocals and driving rhythms. Kicking off with the award winning Animo, Grit gets going with a swaggering rocker, drenched in emotion as the chorus brings some vocoder and something to shout about. It's a clear single getting the engine turning over, Burn Your Bridges has a bit more of bluesy/grungy feel with a nod to bands such as Nirvana and Hole (And 1 More also has that Courtney Love lip curl). More bouncy rock is brought on Not Here For Love while Brother is the biggest shift in sound for some slinky country built on a hip hop drum beat, feeling like Primal Scream.
Here then is where the record becomes much more punk/indie based as On My Own, Runaways, If Looks Could Kill and Fun When You're Winning all shift between punk and indie with ease. The Kut are one of the acts that are hotly tipped and Grit is an ideal example of what that actually means in real terms, empowering and emphatic there's real Grit here! 8/10
Enchantment - Cold Soul Embrace (Transcending Records/Cosmic Key Creations) [Matt Bladen]
In the beach side town of Blackpool, there is something brewing again, something sinister, something evil and something that hasn't stirred for over 30 years. Death/doom metal band Enchantment formed in 1991, they were part of the burgeoning UK death/doom that featured bands such as Paradise Lost, Anathema and My Dying Bride, it was a scene bristling with what was then innovate music that merged the doom riffs of bands such as Black Sabbath, with the 80's gothic scene and the recent death metal explosion from across the pond. Enchantment released a demo in 1993, followed by a Century Media released debut album in 1994 signing to a six record deal. However just as they were on the edge of becoming the newest big name in the death/doom scene, they disbanded disappearing until 2019.
Enchantment - Cold Soul Embrace (Transcending Records/Cosmic Key Creations) [Matt Bladen]
In the beach side town of Blackpool, there is something brewing again, something sinister, something evil and something that hasn't stirred for over 30 years. Death/doom metal band Enchantment formed in 1991, they were part of the burgeoning UK death/doom that featured bands such as Paradise Lost, Anathema and My Dying Bride, it was a scene bristling with what was then innovate music that merged the doom riffs of bands such as Black Sabbath, with the 80's gothic scene and the recent death metal explosion from across the pond. Enchantment released a demo in 1993, followed by a Century Media released debut album in 1994 signing to a six record deal. However just as they were on the edge of becoming the newest big name in the death/doom scene, they disbanded disappearing until 2019.
Now in 2022 they release their second album, their first in 28 years!! Cold Soul Embrace was written in the 90's but has only just been arranged and recorded, so with a modern sounding production what Enchantment have done is release a long lost album that distils the sounds from the peak of the UK death/doom explosion in the 90's. This isn't some young band copying the style or the sound of that era but an album that came from then. So it feels authentic, just take One Jump Of The Sun which closes out the album and is the best example of what Enchantment do, cascading heavy riffs with some soaring solo, spoken word riffs and an cinematic backing, it's a majestic conclusion to a brilliant record. One that doesn't pull it's punches giving exactly the kind of death/doom that made the bands mentioned earlier so revered.
A Swanlike Dust builds from a Gothic beginning into some growled vocals counterpointed with yet more clean spoken vocals, though it's a track such as the harrowing Painting Amongst The Feathers, the propulsive The Wake Of Hollering Tide and the grinding In A Cello-Felt Glare that all really set this album in those 90's glory days. Riffs bigger than all outdoors, strings that undercut the distortion magically along with strong growls Cold Soul Embrace is one for lovers of the genre. A lost classic, that will hopefully see Enchantment return to a stage near you soon. I urge you to seek out Cold Soul Embrace. 9/10