GIG REVIEW: HECK / RAKETKANON @ THE JOINERS, SOUTHAMPTON

Photo by Captain Metal Photography

FUCK EVERYTHING THAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT BABY GODZILLA HECK.

Trust me, I was in that camp once. That first time I saw four men swinging their barely-intact guitars around like over-enthusiastic Belarusian olympic hammer-throwers, screaming blue murder into their microphones and hanging off pretty much anything that could hold their weight; whether it was the many staircases at Bristol's o2 Academy (where I first saw them opening for The Wildhearts back in 2013), or the several oblivious audience members that bothered turning up early for their set.

Photo by Captain Metal 
Photography

From the moment the words 'Baby Godzilla' popped up on the bill for the Kerrang! Tour in 2014, they were on the cusp of being forever doomed as that band where people go 'ooh, they're nutters, shame they haven't got any songs!'. It could have been one of the most transient fads before people got too hung up on the fact that they were barely delivering the ballsy punk n' roll anthems that they seriously have the potential to push to their red-raw limits.

Well, you know what? HECK (formally Baby Godzilla) have those anthems now. They've probably had them stashed away all along (I'd argue that 'Powerboat Disaster' remains one of their biggest and best tracks) but nobody's given them the time of day apart from wazzing off about how mental they are live. They've been through the ringer with being derided as a farce, and they've come out the other end with a handful of fucking furious, riff-heavy bangers. I can't help but doff my metaphorical cap to HECK for dealing with it in the way that they have.

Before you even read this review, go and listen to their debut album, INSTRUCTIONS, and I dare you to say after listening to it that they don't have songs, especially after the three-part 16-minute epic at the end of the record, 'I: See The Old Lady Decently / II: Buried Although / III: Amongst Those Left Are You' *and breathe*...

A really good photo of RAKETKANON by yours truly
(Definitely not taken on an iPhone)

If you think that HECK's insurance providers have a bit of a field day dealing with their responsibilities, try being the band that opens for them. Luckily, RAKETKANON face the challenge with enough batshit enthusiasm to make HECK look like a fucking skiffle band.

What's even more respectable about these Belgian nutcases and their display of grimy, pulsing noise is the fact that they do it without perhaps their most crucial member: lead singer Pieter-Paul Devos is allegedly fighting illness during their set (although guitarist Jef Verbeeck tries to pin his absence on "not being able to snort cocaine on stage in the UK"), but HECK guitarist Jonny Hall is on hand to fill the void. 

Not that there is actually much of a void to be filled, what with keyboardist Lode Vlaeminck headbutting his keyboard and drummer Pieter de Wilde spending more time in the middle of the crowd than behind his kit. Somehow, they still manage to harness those chaotic energies into churning out often-industrial, always-intense art-rock.

Photo by Captain Metal Photography

You think you may know the score with a HECK show, but you'd be an idiot to disregard just how unpredictable this band can be. Sure, they'll be dangling from the rafters and death-staring audience members with a slight pathological intensity (this does happen on numerous occasions tonight), but the order in which they'll be pulling these mad tricks out of the bag seems a mystery to the band themselves.

Just because HECK have started to finally channel some energy into crafting massive hooks and stomping rock n' roll choruses on Instructions, they're far from losing that momentum that thrives in dingy atmospheres like the one at The Joiners. The room may be half-full, but that might be for the best considering the amount of space cleared by the loose cannon of a frontman that is Matt Reynolds. With the same anarchic chemistry of Omar and Cedric from At The Drive-In, or Sid and Clown from Slipknot, Reynolds and Hall quite literally bounce off the walls... and the stage... and the amps... and the crowd. 

Photo by Captain
Metal Photography

Even in amongst the discordance and pandemonium of this feedback-drenched evening, the technical brilliance of HECK's rhythm section is never down-played. Paul Shelley hammers the shit of his bass, gurning like a bulldog chewing a wasp in the process (a hard-as-fuck bulldog at that), while drummer Tom Marsh reaches his enraged peak by nearly punching a hole in his toms. If it weren't for the choppy time signatures that they miraculously uphold, tracks like 'Good As Dead' and 'A Great Idea Bastardised' wouldn't be nearly as chaotic or captivating.

By the time 'Powerboat Disaster' swaggers in, Reynolds has surrendered his mic almost entirely to the crowd who are (myself included) more than willing to join in for the hearty yo-ho-ing that carries on long after the song crashes to a halt. It's glorious moments like this where you're actually grateful that HECK didn't stick around in the Academy-sized venues, in the same way you'd rather see Trash Talk at The Fighting Cocks in Kingston, or letlive. at The Old Blue Last in London. 

Where's the fun in not fearing for your life anyway? One misstep at this show and I could've ended up being strangled with a mic lead, or had a guitar head slammed into my temple, or being flattened by a flying monitor.

Would I have it any other way at a HECK show? 

HECK NO.

Photos by Captain Metal Photography

Big thanks to Captain Metal Photography for letting me use some of his shots. You can check out more of his stuff over on his Facebook page. You can also check out some wicked footage from the show below, courtesy of the kid who stuck his GoPro on one of the amps. You can probably see me at some point trying to lob a mic stand at someone.

Yo-ho, yo-ho...

Danny

LATE TO THE PARTY #2: GLASSJAW - 'WORSHIP AND TRIBUTE'

First of all, I just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who bit their tongue when it came to me admitting that I had never heard Milo Goes To College by Descendents (read my take on it HERE). While I know that you shouldn't really need an excuse to check something out for the first time, I thought this would be a really cool way of making those confessions, and I hold absolutely no shame in making them.

That said, there are undoubtedly going to be some albums covered in the not-so-distant future that I know I've had so many opportunities to listen to before now, and I just need to take the WHAT?!'s and ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?!'s on the chin.

I was a little bit anxious about this one, but what's the use in fannying around? UNTIL THIS WEEK, I HAD NEVER LISTENED TO GLASSJAW. Not a single note. If you were to have said the words 'Daryl Palumbo' to me last week, I wouldn't have thought 'Cosmopolitan Blood Loss'; I would have thought 'Beating Heart Baby', before strutting my stuff like an epileptic Jagger impersonator. Who can blame me?

If I didn't know who Daryl Palumbo was and you played me Head Automatica and Glassjaw back-to-back, I would have never put two and two together. After hearing WORSHIP AND TRIBUTE, I hold Palumbo in the same regard as Jason Aalon Butler from letlive. or perhaps even Chino Moreno from Deftones: a vocalist who is sometimes so violently emotional in their delivery that it sounds like they're on the verge of imploding, while also being able to schizophrenically switch to honey-smooth, insanely soulful crooning.

In fact, that's probably a really good way of describing this album: schizophrenic. It's an absolute headfuck from those ear-swapping guitars at the beginning of 'Tip Your Bartender' to that devastating breakdown at the end of 'Two Tabs Of Mescaline'. Even after intently listening to it three times, Worship And Tribute is continuously unpredictable and batshit crazy.

Before listening to Glassjaw, I'd seen them placed with the likes of The Used, Thrice, Brand New etc. as part of that second wave of emo/post-hardcore, and that makes sense when you hear the broodier, more delicate tracks on the album (especially 'Must've Run All Day' and 'Trailer Park Jesus'). What surprised me about Worship And Tribute, however, was how stylistically similar it was to the more progressive side of latter-day nu-metal. 

Tagging it with that sub-genre may seem like a taboo to some of you, and maybe 'alternative metal' would do it more justice, but if you listen to the scratchiness of the guitars, and the chorus on 'Cosmopolitan Blood Loss', there's definite links to bands like Deftones and Alien Ant Farm. I loved that scene as a kid, and ANThology ruled my stereo alongside P.O.D.'s Satellite, and I even went through this phase a couple of years ago of picking up on albums like Ideas Above Our Station by Hundred Reasons and S.C.I.E.N.C.E. by Incubus for the first time. 

Listening back to some of those albums from my childhood, I can't help but think that some of them, while still awesome, are dated as sin. Worship And Tribute, on the other hand, sounds anything but dated.

Luckily, the bands that survived that commercial death of nu-metal (soon after the release of Worship And Tribute in 2002) without some form of ridicule were the ones that were forward-thinking in their composition and instrumentation. Glassjaw can comfortably be counted amongst those enterprising bands; all you have to is listen to that absolute riffstorm of an intro to 'Mu Empire' (my personal favourite moment on the record) to hear the influence on what will eventually become the post-hardcore/'metalcore' scene a few years later.

With Glassjaw finally making progress on that long-awaited third album, people are raving over their return for way more than just nostalgia's sake. Now I can finally count myself amongst those ranks, I jumped back forward in time to check out their latest track, 'New White Extremity', and let me tell you: it's really not worth me taking my finger off Glassjaw's pulse any time soon.

IF YOU'RE LIKE ME (AKA A TOOL) AND YOU'VE NEVER HEARD WORSHIP AND TRIBUTE, OR YOU SIMPLY WANT TO LISTEN TO IT AGAIN, THEN YOU CAN STREAM IT ON SPOTIFY BELOW:

After setting up the various polls on Facebook and Twitter, Worship And Tribute did have the most votes out of the three suggested records, but it was in very close contention with The Offspring's Smash - I think it would be a bit dickish of me to now snub that album, so LTTP #3 on Smash will arrive in a couple weeks' time. Nevertheless, I have already picked another trio of never-before-heard albums for you to pick from for the fourth edition of this feature, and you are more than welcome to start commenting on which of the following albums you'd like me to give a blast...

Until next time, I'm off to dig out this bad boy. Because #nostalgia.

Danny

THE RR PLAYLIST VOL. II: THE BEST AND THE REST OF 2016 (SO FAR)

Wow, what a start to the year. As far as new music goes, 2016 is certainly shitting all over the last couple of years, and it only felt right for me to look back at some of the noteworthy records from the first two months with a big fuck-off playlist. And, believe me, there are a LOT of records...

I'll start this edition of The RR Playlist as I mean to continue, and that's fucking loudly... Now, BURY TOMORROW. As someone who immersed himself in that 'metalcore' scene around 2011/2012, a lot of which I now look back at in horror (yeah, I'm looking at you, Texas In July and Woe, Is Me), I don't know why Bury Tomorrow's records never had a lasting resonance with me. There's tracks like 'Lionheart' and 'Royal Blood' that are fucking huge, and the live shows have always been worth getting excited about, but when it came to the albums, I just felt a bit deflated and unfulfilled... until now.

EARTHBOUND is an absolute masterclass in how to do modern metal right, and I'm so glad that Bury Tomorrow have finally hit that nail square on the bonce. From the very start of that double-bass onslaught in 'THE ETERNAL', it is an unrelenting barrage of crushing hooks and beatdowns for which Bury Tomorrow have always had the potential to pull off, but have rarely been able to fully unleash. An absolute fucking crusher of a melodic metal album, and anyone who doubts them after this can take their copy of Stand Up And Scream and stick it sideways - this is the real deal.

Something which completely passed me by when it first dropped at the start of the year, but instantly went on this playlist after the first listen, was the return of PUP with 'DVP'. If you haven't heard PUP's self-titled debut album, you should probably stick that on first in order to understand how excited everyone (now including me) is for its follow-up, THE DREAM IS OVER, which is due out later this year. Through singles like 'Reservoir' and 'Mabu', they've established a sound which dips between scuzzy, shambolic garage-punk, and intensely-melodic, chorus-heavy alt-rock. Despite its frantic, face-melter of a lead hook, 'DVP''s verses and vocal harmonies make it a surefire beers-and-burritos summer soundtrack.

One of the bands I'm really looking forward to working with this year at Hassle Records is MAX RAPTOR, who are going to be releasing their second album in April (*NOT A PLUG*). They've been around for a few years now, but thanks to tracks like 'OLD ROMANTICS', they're finally finding a way to punch into the upper echelons of British punk rock. I feel like this track in particular is a gateway track to those bigger things - the melodies and the choruses sound more crowd-pleasing on the same kind of level as Against Me!'s latest work (something which I didn't realise until it was pointed out on That's Not Metal last week), but it's still got that proper 'UP THE PUNX' snarl which has always made them a little bit more authentic and visceral than their contemporaries. Bloody good job by my #TeamHassle cohorts there.

Now I've chatted for a bit about a couple of the punk albums that should keep me on my toes for the rest of the year, let's chat about one of the punk albums which made 2016 a biggie in the first place: VILE CHILD, the sensational debut album by MILK TEETH. I'll refer you to MY FULL REVIEW of this record when it dropped back in January, but 'BRAIN FOOD' is arguably the best place to start in order to summarise both the turbulent, transformative stage that Milk Teeth have been going through lately, as well what we can expect from them in the future: it's playful and poppy, but still carries those 90s-as-fuck vibes from the spikier and more aggressive end of the grunge spectrum. And you know what else? I saw them open their set with it the other night when they supported Tonight Alive, and it is an absolute stormer live.

I want to step away from the punkier side of things for a few tracks, firstly by looking at an album which pleasantly took me by surprise. My only experience of SAVAGES prior to diving into their second record, ADORE LIFE, was a pretty kick-ass performance on Later With... Jools Holland from a few years back, and while I was expecting something a bit noisier and rougher around the edges, this record grooves with elements of desert rock (especially on opening track 'THE ANSWER', which almost sounds like Sleater-Kinney covering Queens Of The Stone Age), before pulsing with the darker, jauntier sounds akin to 80s synth-pop. It's not quite blown my skirt up enough for me to go back to it over and over again, but this album has definitely got appeal far beyond my expectations.

This is where we really verge into poppier, more mainstream territories which, if ventured into right, can really tick my boxes. As we established when I ranked their White Noise videos from 'worst' to best, I am an absolute sucker for PVRIS at the moment, and while their latest single, 'YOU AND I', is the closest to mainstream pop that PVRIS have been so far, I know that the band's gloomier side is still very present, and that they still have it in them to keep writing absolute anthems with really dark and sinister undertones. 'You And I', with the greatest of respects to the rest of the band, is all about Lynn Gunn coming full circle as an absolute powerhouse of a frontwoman, and 2016 is without a shadow of a doubt the year that this band goes global.

PANIC! AT THE DISCO dropped off my radar for a few years, but at the start of the year they (or him) found their way firmly back into my heart for the first time since A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. That's thanks to DEATH OF A BACHELOR: a comeback album that, on the face of it, is cornier than Fat Bastard's shite, but is actually the sum of cinematic production and uncompromising attitude. With the Beyonce-goes-big-band title track amongst other pop-'rock' party bangers, this is Brendon Urie at his most indulgent and shameless, delivering with the same vaudevillian sass that made Fever... a modern classic. I have a long-standing problem with Fall Out Boy making pop music this glossy, but that's probably because they've made Take This To Your Grave and From Under The Cork Tree, and the new stuff is a pile of toss in comparison (actually, not even in comparison: American Beauty / American Psycho is pathetic in its own right). With Panic!, it's a different situation: this has always been a big part of what Urie does, and the level of craft with which he flaunts it is genius.

From one extreme to the other, THE BLACK QUEEN delve into a much more ominous corner of pop, sounding like a warped amalgam of the Drive soundtrack, mixtape-era The Weeknd, Depeche Mode, Crosses and No Devotion. I admittedly don't know much about The Dillinger Escape Plan beyond 'Milk Lizard' and the time Greg Puciato shat in a bag onstage at Reading Festival, but The Black Queen's debut album, FEVER DAYDREAM, still knocked me for six. It's the sort of record that goes 'you think you know Greg Puciato? Well here you go...' and BAM! - tracks like 'Ice To Never' and 'APOCALYPSE MORNING' throw you a huge curveball with enchanting results. Even as someone who's not so clued up about Dillinger, this is not the album you'd expect Puciato to come out with in a million years, but what a milestone of artistic achievement this will be for that man.

I can't say a bad word against LONELY THE BRAVE, and that's not because they're on Hassle Records. I was a fan long before I joined the team at Hassle, and they are without a doubt the most humbled and down-to-earth band I've had the pleasure of knowing and working with. Not to mention the fact that they've written some of the biggest choruses I've heard in my life, with 'BLACK MIRE' proving no exception. If you thought that their debut album, The Day's War, reached new levels of anthemic rock, then you haven't heard anything yet. Working with Ross Orton (who most famously produced Arctic Monkeys' AM) has clearly brought out the best in all of the band, and this first returning single sets a very exciting precedent for their second album, THINGS WILL MATTER, which is out on May 20th.

There's a reason this edition of The RR Playlist is called 'The Best AND THE REST Of 2016', and that's because I really hoped that BASEMENT's new album was a bit better than it turned out to be. Maybe it's because it was so hyped up after the band went on hiatus, maybe it's because they set the bar a bit too high with the contemporary emo opus that is Colourmeinkindness... That said, there are a handful songs on PROMISE EVERYTHING that are well worth your time, and a couple from those handful have some of Basement's finest moments within them. If they took the verses from 'BROTHER'S KEEPER' which really drive home that early Foo Fighters influence, and put them with the choruses from 'Aquasun' and 'For You The Moon', and then used that formula over the course of a whole record (with variations, of course), then we'd be looking at our #1 Album of 2016 already.

Here's one that went on the playlist last minute after hearing it on the Radio 1 Rock Show literally made me stop and stare at my speakers. NOTHING's debut album, Guilty Of Everything, was adored by a lot of people around me but sadly passed me by. I rectified that as soon as I heard 'VERTIGO FLOWERS', and boy, I sure am excited to hear the new album, TIRED OF TOMORROW, when it drops in May. The band still have the dreaminess of their earlier, shoegaze-y material, but they've also developed an ear for catchy-as-fuck alt-rock choruses. Keep listening until the end for a monumental breakdown which will hit you right in the centre of the feels.

I'll keep this next one pretty brief, as I recently spoke about the record in some detail (you can read my review HERE), but I cannot stress how important it is for you to listen to RAIN and their debut EP, SYMPHONY PAINS. It's a shame that the grunge revival scene of late is already starting to drip-feed us some bands that just sound lethargic in all the wrong ways, making distorted, 90s-esque noise for the sake of sounding purposefully 'nostalgic', but Rain feel much more authentic and are of greater potential by taking those washed-out guitar tones and applying it to massive-sounding alt-rock (as best heard on the single 'SLUR'). Definitely one of the shining stars of their scene right now.

The only scene surrounded by more buzz (and rightfully so) is the UK punk scene; from the re-emergence of the DIY ethos and kitchen shows, to bands punching into the upper echelons of alternative music as a whole. MUNCIE GIRLS sit very comfortable between both ends of the spectrum, and even as their fanbase grows on a daily basis, they've kept the passion and ideals of a DIY punk band on their heroic debut album, FROM CAPLAN TO BELSIZE. Track after track after track, it is a fucking ridiculously infectious record, but the lyrics are thought-provoking and revolutionary, just like punk rock should be. So if you're like me and you feel so confused by contemporary politics that it leaves you clueless as to what to actually do, here's what you do: stick on 'LEARN IN SCHOOL' and embrace your radical side. Muncie Girls are the socially-conscious punk band of this generation.

In terms of momentum-building, WEATHERSTATE are following not too far behind their peers, and the more and more I listen to their debut EP, DUMBSTRUCK, the more I think that giving it 3/5 for Upset was a bit over-critical. Here's the thing: a couple of years ago, you'd look at these sort of snotty underground punk kids and think 'this will never go beyond toilet venues', but like several of the bands on this list, Weatherstate have it in them to go way beyond that. It's thanks to songs with massive early Green Day-esque choruses like 'STUCK IN A HOLE', and when I listen back to the EP (which I have done frequently), I could maybe justify my criticism with the fact that this is just the start of something a lot bigger.

The excitement around the UK punk scene now expands far beyond the sounds that you might generally perceive as 'punk rock'. This burgeoning community also welcomes in bands from scenes of emo and grunge revival, hardcore and alt-rock, the latter of which has bands like PRETEND HAPPY to boast. This band found their way into my peripherals via the UK Emo/Grunge and UK Pop-Punk groups on Facebook (both brilliant places to go if you want to edge your way further into that community), and through the likes of 'HELLP' and 'Arsonist', they show songwriting chops far beyond their infancy as a band on their debut album, TIRED EYES: a record bursting at its seams with astounding clarity and powerful melodic choruses.

This next record is a weird one, because even after half a dozen plays of their latest EP, WHOLLY, I didn't really 'get' GRADER until I saw them live (where they proceeded tear my jaw from my face) last week. At first it just sounds like bog-standard hardcore with really divisive vocals, but when you saw the bare-bones emotion that the band pour into their performance, then you listen back to the EP and the catharsis behind the music makes a lot more sense. Sometimes that happens with bands, which is why it's so important to check them out live on support slots or at small shows. Listening back to the EP after seeing them live, tracks like 'WILT' (featuring Will Gould from Creeper, but more about them in a minute) strike so much more of a chord, and now I can see why they people see them as such bright lights on the UK hardcore scene.

Speaking of bright lights, and Will Gould, and Creeper... let's face it: there's only one band that could have ended this playlist, and NO, I don't think I am ever going to shut up about them. Muncie Girls may be the "socially-conscious punk band of our generation", but CREEPER are the punk band of our generation, full stop. I've already spoken at length about THE STRANGER EP (again, you can read my review of it HERE), but I just want to say this: when they played The Underworld last week, I witnessed a band coming full circle in terms of their concept, their theatricality and their truly captivating presence on stage, and when they played 'MISERY', it became even clearer to me that Creeper (as well as perhaps Lonely The Brave on account of how massive they sound) are going to be the next British band to conquer arenas, and I couldn't be prouder of them. Until then, though, let's just take pride in the fact that they're playing venues without barriers, and we can still stagedive our fucking legs off to them.

There you go: that's a massive playlist to tide you over for a little while, and as ever, you can stream the playlist above via the RR Spotify. I've been working on some pretty cool stuff for the blog in the near future, but until then, I want to know which records have been making your 2016 (so far) awesome. Pop it in the comments below, or hit me up on Facebook and Twitter, and who knows? I may like it enough to stick it in The RR Playlist #3. Or not, I can be a cynical prick sometimes.

I'm also always up for hearing your music, so if you are in a band that you think I could comfortably wrap my ears around, send your sounds to RANDONSREVIEWS@GMAIL.COM.

Fin.

Danny

EP REVIEW: RAIN - 'SYMPHONY PAINS'

One thing that I always loved doing when Randon's Reviews was on Tumblr (don't judge) was recommending the works of some of my favourite music journalists, and I wanted to bring that back a bit today to introduce this review. I read an article online the other day by Ryan De Freitas, a wicked writer who I feel proud to be working alongside for Upset magazine, about how the 'emo revival' scene of late is now way past the point of being a revival, and how some bands from that scene (Modern Baseball, The World Is A Beautiful Place..., Into It. Over It., etc.) are starting to stand on their own merits. I'll leave the following quote below to give you a taster of the article, which you can and should read HERE:

"FOR MANY, THE MAIN COMPLAINT REGARDING THE 'REVIVAL' TAG WAS THAT IT SUGGESTED EPHEMERALITY; THAT THIS WAS MERELY ANOTHER FAD FOR CRITICS TO ROLL THEIR EYES AT. NOW AT THE START OF 2016, ( ... ) THOSE COMPLAINTS ARE PROVING MORE VALID THAN EVER. BECAUSE IT WASN'T A FAD. IT WAS THE RESULT OF HARDWORKING BANDS THAT SHARED INFLUENCES FINDING BOTH EACH OTHER AND A FANBASE."

To a degree, I feel like the same sentiments can also be applied to the 'grunge revival' that's been making waves lately, but in this case it's so important to distinguish the lackadaisical from the lethargic. The sounds and ideals of grunge needs to be revisited with a bit more craft and inventiveness than just plugging your Fender Jaguar into a bunch of distortion and modulation pedals (NB: I'm not a guitar geek). I'll quote another great journalist, Rock Sound's Gav Lloyd in his review of Milk Teeth's Vile Child, to accentuate my point: "WEARING A CARDIGAN DOES NOT MAKE YOU KURT COBAIN." *

* I'm paraphrasing here because I can't find my copy of the review, but that quote really stuck with me so I think I got it right. Sorry to Gav if I misquoted him (please don't sue).

RAIN are a shining example of a new British band that are bringing those nostalgic vibes of 90's alt-rock back to the fore, but also join bands like Title Fight and Hindsights in taking it to stratospheric new levels. Put simply, their debut EP, SYMPHONY PAINS, is bedroom-demo shoegaze being played on an arena-rock scale-- Actually, I'm not even sure if it's on the fucking scale. It sounds MASSIVE.

While you may think that the sort of sounds being dealt out by bands of this ilk belongs in dive bars and house shows, Rain have harnessed the all-conquering ethos of 90s britpop to take their melodies to a sonically higher place. All you need to do is listen to the first 7 seconds of opening track 'Slur', and you will realise that this is more than just simple chords and psychedelic guitar tones. In fact, let me try and give you an exact recap of the first time I listened to 'Slur':

00.00.01: "OKAY, SOME PRETTY RETRO VIBES COMING OFF OF THIS, NOT BAD, I LIKE THAT GUITAR TONE, ETC."

00.00.06: "WHAT THE FUCK?! HOLY SHIT, THIS IS HUGE! WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON RIGHT NOW? IS THIS HEAVEN?"

Maybe I exaggerated on that bit about heaven, but you catch my drift, and that's just the first 7 seconds of the song. You just wait until you hear the other 5 minutes and 36 seconds .of it: there's choruses which you would struggle to describe as anything other than 'cataclysmic', and ethereal vocal harmonies in the verses to keep you mellow and safe from a full-on emo breakdown.

The fact that there's plenty of moments that evoke the same emotional response as 'Slur''s explosive opening is testament to how good Symphony Pains is. 'Slur' is undeniably the 'big hitter' that rings with eye-watering clarity, but over the course of the EP's 15 minutes, you are met with euphoric, luscious melodies as they spiral upward towards warm, washed-out hooks and shit-kicking drums, all the way through to 'Dandelion''s devastating conclusion.

It would take some bands a whole album to sound as epic as Rain do in just three tracks. The fact that the band have already paid another visit to the recording studio between the recording and release of Symphony Pains means that it's an extremely promising start for Rain, as they join the growing list of bands breaking through the cursed mould of the revivalist scene.

TOP TRACKS: 'SLUR'; 'INDIGO IN BLUE'

RR RATING:

SYMPHONY PAINS IS OUT NOW ON CLOSE TO HOME RECORDS. STREAM THE EP ON SPOTIFY BELOW:

P.S. I know I ended up incoherently dribbling about this EP at certain points in its review, and I'm not apologetic of that at all because that's how I wanted my style on this blog to be in the first place, but if you want to read some of my proper writing, you can grab the next issue of Upset magazine from Friday (March 4th), which features my review of Neck Deep's recent show in London. I think I only incoherently dribbled about Creeper in that review, because why wouldn't I?

P.P.S. Thanks to everyone who helped me hit 1000 page views on this blog over the last two months. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but consider how shitty Blogger's SEO is, it's the ultimate pay-off and it means the fucking world to me.

Until next time, peace out. That's a 90s thing to say, right?

Danny

PVRIS - THE 'WHITE NOISE' VIDEOS, RANKED 'WORST' TO BEST

As of last weekend, PVRIS (not pronounced 'Pvvvris') have released a music video for every single track from their debut album, White Noise. If you haven't heard White Noise yet, let me try and nutshell how amazing it is: it's got this glossy but elusive synth-pop vibe to it in the same way that bands like CHVRCHES (again, not pronounced 'Chvvvrches') do, but then there's also a snap of mainstream rock catchiness. When I drew up my list of top albums for 2014, White Noise came in at #24. If I was to re-rank those albums, it would comfortable be within the top five for that year.

What's really piqued my interest about this series of videos is the fact that White Noise came out nearly a year and a half ago, and yet PVRIS haven't done what most bands would do on the cycle of an album. They haven't just made three of four videos before fucking off for a few months before the next album. PVRIS have kept people's attention right up until they're about to release new music, and I really respect that. As the YouTube kids appear to say, I'm "such fucking trash" for the White Noise vids.

As much as it is 'all about the music', music videos are a really great way to channel a visual concept, which for bands like PVRIS, has become a major factor in a band's appeal, especially for someone like me who is an absolute sucker for the performance element of music. I haven't really spoken much about music videos on this incarnation of Randon's Reviews, and even though my knowledge of film studies is no better than the next person, I felt inspired to rank the White Noise videos from the 'worst' (a word I use very loosely) to the best...

EDITOR'S NOTE: I actually wrote this blog a few hours before PVRIS dropped their new single, 'You And I', and I had planned for this post to precede the release but it dropped sooner than I thought. But hey, I've done it now, and let's not forget how awesome these videos are.

#9: 'St. Patrick'

This might seem a controversial choice for last place considering the fact that this is arguably PVRIS' biggest single to date (as well as the first video released), but I must stress how loosely I use the term 'worst': PVRIS have not released a bad video. While they do make an effort to introduce their image and concept with the 'St. Patrick' video, it's something which has definitely become more explicit with each video.

#8: 'My House'

This is the second and final case of PVRIS ironing out the creases in their performance on camera: when I look back at these earlier music videos, it feels like the band initially struggled with figuring out how to present themselves on camera, but they're still very visually pleasing. After the video for 'My House' (which was followed by 'White Noise'), PVRIS really started to nail that visual element.

#7: 'Eyelids'

This is actually my least favourite song from White Noise, but that's a bit like saying it's my least favourite chocolate from a box of Celebrations (yep, I even like Bounty). Seeing as this is one of the last videos to be released, its use of lighter colours and stripped-back visuals throws a pretty interesting contrast to the other videos, and that kind of reflects the role that 'Eyelids' plays on the album too.

#6: 'Smoke'

Even though there was a six-month wait between the video for 'Fire' and the video for 'Smoke' (*insert something awful like 'No fire without smoke' here*), this set the precedent for the week following its release, where PVRIS essentially bombarded us with video after video after video. It's fast in pace, but the band still maintain their elusiveness by looking the shit in silhouette form. 

MVP for this one however goes to Jarrod "I like your khaki shorts" Alonge, who left this absolute stonker of a comment on the video:

#5: 'Fire'

Take cover, Lynn Gunn has dropped a fucking sass bomb! When I first heard 'Fire', I remember instantly feeling the attitude and knowing from that point that PVRIS were actually going to be a pretty big deal. That's also how I felt when I watched the video for the first time; it's a real step-up in terms of confronting those mainstream pressures and expectations head-on. I don't know what else to talk about other than how kickass and fierce the performance is in this video. And that's 'very'. Yeah, I'm done.

#4: 'Ghosts' / 'Let Them In'

Well, this one took everyone by surprise. Combining two tracks in one video is strange, and you may think that they're cutting corners, but it's actually more impressive considering how minimal the video is. How they can take a series of time lapses and motion blurs, add a load of lens flares, stretch that out over nearly 7 minutes and make it one of their most captivating music videos is beyond me, but I'm just glad that they did it right, and that my laptop wasn't broken (honestly, I had to watch it a second time on my phone to be sure that was how it was meant to look).

#3: 'Holy'

I think this might be the first time that PVRIS indulge the darker side of their music on camera, and there couldn't be a better or more beautiful song on the album to do it to. The grainy, VCR effect also seems to impact on a number of the videos that follow, and it's surprising how eerie it makes everything look. Visually, I put it in the same bracket as 'Ghosts' / 'Let Them In' in the way that they've taken a limited amount of footage, and manipulate it so that your attention never wanes.

#2: 'White Noise'

While Lynn is an incredible vocalist and performer, it's worth mentioning that Alex Babinski and Brian MacDonald do way more in PVRIS' videos than stand at the side and look a bit surly. The internet may have melted over the fact that you briefly see Lynn in her underwear in the 'White Noise' video, but I feel like Alex and Brian really hold their own here and hit the narrative home. On top of that, there's wicked little nods to paranormal horror movies, and the editing and visual effects really start to break through here. Also, that chorus. Shit me.

#1: 'Mirrors'

SDJCASDEOJUSEDIUSH… Now, I just typed that scramble of random letters in when I was docking around with embedding YouTube videos into the post, but I actually decided to leave it in there, because it's probably quite an accurate representation of the noise I think I made when I first saw the final video in the White Noise saga.

PVRIS really did save the best for last with 'Mirrors'. It's visually stunning, the imagery and editing as at its absolute best, the performance is awesome - it basically takes everything that's been great about these videos and shoots it into the fucking sky. 'White Noise' may have had those Poltergeist nuances but this is actually scary, like the early Marilyn Manson videos, another example of where visual editing comes into really magnificent play. It's just the best way to end PVRIS' epic first chapter.

Obviously I keep saying 'PVRIS do this' and 'PVRIS do that', but MASSIVE credit is due to Raul Gonzo, who directed all of the White Noise videos. In the age of vine compilations, Twitter and the destruction of everyone's attention spans, it is amazing how Gonzo can take a single concept, however minute, or shoot an interestingly limited variety of footage, and manipulate it to keep people captivated for longer than three minutes. I've been guilty of having the attention span of a brain-damaged goldfish, but the White Noise videos have had me glued to the very last second, and often going back several times (I think I watched 'Mirrors' three times over when it dropped).

As ever, I'd be stoked to hear your opinion. I've been really rather lovely to you and set up a YouTube playlist of the White Noise videos in the order that they were released. Check them out below, and hit me up with your thoughts in the comments section, on the RR Facebook page, or on Twitter... Unless your thoughts are just 'OMG, Lynn Gunn is in her pants!'. I know. Chill out.

Danny

EP REVIEW: CREEPER - 'THE STRANGER'

A lot of you saw probably saw this review coming, seeing as I think I've done pretty well in not spaffing all over this blog about how much I fucking love Creeper. Not only have they written some of the best punk rock songs of our generation, but they are on the cusp of something explosive, stratospheric even.

I get the same vibe from Creeper as I did when My Chemical Romance breached the mainstream with Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge: it feels more accessible musically than a lot of the music of the scene that they stemmed from, but at the same time they still stood proud on behalf of the freaks and outsiders, uncompromising and otherworldly. MCR may have become more of a corporate machine in their later days, but in that moment, between Three Cheers... and The Black Parade, it was a bold and brilliant time for 'alternative' music. With Creeper, I feel that excitement again as the cult-like fanbase around them continues to grow. With the Callous Heart patch proudly sewn onto my denim jacket, I have undoubtedly succumbed to the Creeper Cult. 

What initially seemed to be a bunch of punk misfits with a dark delight for the macabre is now a troupe of punk craftsmen (and craftswoman) with a dark delight for the macabre. Everything from the iconography to the two-part fairytale that concludes with The Stranger has been created meticulously, but never in a contrived manner, especially not on this, their most personal release to date.

Their last EP, The Callous Heart, set an alluring precedent that saw bigger, more mainstream audiences flocking to see them on support slots and in small club gigs: it was fast, it was fun, but above all, it was profound. The Stranger's role in Creeper's grandiose production, as frontman Will Gould explains in a recent behind-the-scenes vid, is to embody "time and the things we fear". It's with that concept in mind that I think this EP represents Creeper going 'right, we can write great punk rock choruses, but what else can we blow people's minds with?', and out came this fucking massive-sounding rock record.

On first listen, the sheer craft, pace and majesty of The Stranger is startling and almost seems like a bit of a curveball, and perhaps that would be the case if it was a stand-alone release. However, when it's lined up in succession to The Callous Heart, it's a natural element of Creeper's sound and this is the glorious moment where it comes to fruition. Do yourself a favour and listening to both records back-to-back; that's where you will learn to truly appreciate the craft of this record. 

They still have those fist-in-the-air anthems like 'Black Mass', which throws around influences from Alkaline Trio to Elvis like it's nobody's business, and is probably one of the best songs that Creeper will ever write. But then there's also songs like the opening track, 'The Secret Society': a swelling build-up into a somewhat Bat Out Of Hell-esque eruption with all the pomp of a rock opera, before giving way to 'Valentine''s uncannily Three Cheers...-era verses and huge swaying choruses.

With 'Novena' and 'Henley's Ghost' now , one thing that often gets overlooked with Creeper is their ability to write heart-wrenching balladry. 'Misery' is hardly the token ballad in this EP of frank admissions and cathartic lyricism, but it will have fans singing "Misery never goes out of style" in their arena-sized masses, and you can take that to the bank: Creeper will one day be playing arenas, and it's thanks to songs like 'Misery'.

Now, to any punk rock purists out there: you can calm their tits if you think that this is the sound of Creeper selling out so early in the game. They are not slowing down, they are not taming. They are just sonically expanding to justify those grand concepts and narratives - not that they had anything to prove in the first place. The songs were always there, as was the concept, but finally it feels like they are mutually thriving off of one another.

Around the release of their debut EP, I would have classed Creeper as 'promising'. With The Callous Heart, they became exciting. Now, at the end of this wonderful saga, Creeper are important, and as they look ahead to the next chronicle that they have beautifully set the stage for, it feels like their most enchanting moment is yet to come.

TOP TRACKS: 'Black Mass'; 'Misery'; 'The Secret Society'

 RR RATING:

The Stranger is out February 19th on Roadrunner Records. Click here to stream the EP before its release via the band's website.

Beware the Callous Heart...

Danny