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Album Reviews

Cancer Bats

Cancer Bats

‘Give Me Dirt’

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CANCER BATS – GIVE ME DIRT – ALBUM REVIEW

Given they are twenty years and seven albums into their career, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect from Cancer Bats and album number eight. Still, ‘Give Me Dirt’ is here to remind you that the band still have plenty of energy to offer.

This record is a simplistic affair with the band having got themselves back into a room and collaborated old school style to create the wall of noise that you know and love.

Lyrically and thematically the album is also rooted in the simple. In no way back to basics, but more back to nature. The themes of ‘Give Me Dirt’ are just that… wanting to leave the modern world behind and retreat to the serenity of the natural world.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘GIVE ME DIRT’
Cancer Bats – ‘Give Me Dirt’

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Of course, there isn’t anything serene about the sonic onslaught that the band produce but you can get a sense for the mindset of the band throughout these eleven songs.

Album opener, ‘World Wild Fire Death Race’ confronts the horrors we are seeing daily on our TV’s and the whole album continues to rue our disrespect towards the planet and how beautiful our connection to nature can be.

You can sense a fire burning inside the band and that results in absolutely one of their best albums to date. Old school fans and new can find something for them with ‘Give Me Dirt’ and that’s a wonderful thing!

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Electric Callboy

Electric Callboy

‘TANZNEID’

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Electric callboy – TANZNEID – album review

The rise of Electric Callboy post name change can only be described as meteoric! The band have ascended festival billings, played bigger and bigger venues and have been on the tip of tongues in the rock world.

Rather than just the normal pre-release rhetoric, new album ‘TANZNEID’, has truly been “long-awaited” and “highly-anticipated”. That’s both due to genuine excitement and also the fact that some songs have been out for up to two years already.

The full album is finally here now albeit by release day only ‘Heartclub’, ‘The Savior’ and four remixes haven’t already been released. There is something special about listening to an album as a whole however that is still meaningful.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘RATATATA’
Electric Callboy x BABYMETAL – ‘RATATATA’

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As you’d expect, the overall listening experience is a joyous one. These songs are fun and designed to go off live. We knew that about the likes of BABYMETAL collab mega-hit ‘RATATATA’ and Sum 41 cover ‘Still Waiting’ but these new tracks are just as impressive.

Every one of the ten songs that comprise the main album (excluding the remixes) feel single worthy and maybe that’s why so many have been! Even the remixes tagged on the end manage to add something.

This is the album that it needed to be to continue the rise of Electric Callboy, you’ll just know most of it already!

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Magazine

Full Pelt Magazine

Vol. 146

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Lucia & The Best Boys

Lucia & The Best Boys

‘Picking Petals’

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LUCIA & THE BEST BOYS – PICKING PETALS – ALBUM REVIEW

Lucia & The Best Boys, one of Scottish music’s best kept secrets are back with their sophomore album, ‘Picking Petals’, and it’s another smouldering collection of emotively engaging indie rockers ready to let the secret out.

Once you’ve discovered the band it’s very difficult not to go all in. With an immense talent and songwriting ability, Lucia Fairfull and her band feel like an undeniable force.

Each track captivates with majestic melody and those powerful vocals, you can feel Fairfull’s continued growth across this album.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘Lonely girl’
Lucia & The Best Boys – ‘Lonely Girl’

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Obvious comparisons are available – Kate Bush, Fleetwood Mac, Florence + The Machine, HAIM… the list goes on but this isn’t just a love letter to those influences this is a harnessing of those powers into something fresh.

Elegant pop hooks with indie swagger and rock attitude, these songs feel like Lucia & The Best Boys nailing down a signature sound of their own and we are all for it.

Guest spots from Lauren Mayberry (Chvrches) and Abigail Morris (The Last Dinner Party) both play out superbly and by the album finale, ‘Ephemeral’, you’ll feel like your only option is to hit play again!

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Five Finger Death Punch

Five Finger Death Punch

‘Legacy’

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FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH – LEGACY – ALBUM REVIEW

For all of us the question of legacy will arise at some point. What am I leaving behind? How will my time on this planet be remembered? What did I achieve? For big bands and artists living their lives in the public eye, these questions burn even heavier.

Over two decades, Five Finger Death Punch have done a lot. They’ve become one of the biggest metal bands on this planet we all live on. They have played big shows, huge festival slots, had massive success across their nine albums and have done things 99.9% of bands only wish they could’ve achieved.

The band have also attracted their fair share of naysayers and haters however and have suffered with demons that 99.9% of bands are glad to avoid. As they celebrate their 20th anniversary and release their aptly titled tenth album, ‘Legacy’, many will naturally ponder those original questions in relation to this band.

A band seemingly destined to headline major festivals but one that still has not. A band who has created music cherished by many and despised by just as many. Their legacy may therefore be one of divisiveness.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘EYE OF THE STORM’
Five Finger Death Punch – ‘Eye of the Storm’

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Funny then that this new album is clearly going to do the same thing – create mixed feelings. Lovers of the band will herald this as everything that makes the band their favourite. Those that hate the band will equally point to the tired metal tropes that make them so polarising.

There is no originality on this record. If you asked AI to create a new Five Finger Death Punch album, this wouldn’t be far off. Still for a tenth album, and looking back at their career this is probably exactly what their diehard fans will want to hear, so how can you call this anything but a success?

And there lies the essence of the problem. The band have made themselves into something that can never be universally loved. Division is part of their musical identity. The album offers nothing new, but it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is. It’s modern metal at it’s biggest, but it’s modern metal at its most overdone. For every positive, there is a negative.

That’s all a long way of explaining that this is as predicted a true marmite album. Love the band and you’ll love this album. Hate the band and this is more fuel for your fire. Trying to be unbiased we keep coming back to the overarching word – generic. That pretty much sums it up.

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Magazine

Full Pelt Magazine

Vol. 145

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Album Reviews

The Strokes

The Strokes

‘Reality Awaits’

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THE STROKES – REALITY AWAITS – ALBUM REVIEW

The Strokes have never been the most prolific band. It shouldn’t be a surprise therefore that despite the relative success of 2020’s ‘The New Abnormal’, it has taken them another six years to release the follow up.

Their seventh album, ‘Reality Awaits’, is finally here however following a slight delay to it’s release. For the album, the band are back with producer Rick Rubin who helped them bring about that previous acclaimed effort.

It isn’t a direct follow on however and finds the band again experimenting with their sound over the course of forty-three minutes and nine tracks. With only one song under the four-minute mark, these songs have certainly been given room to breathe.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘GOING SHOPPING’
The Strokes – ‘Going Shopping’

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The outcome can at times mean the songs and the album drag a little. There is still a really solid album in here somewhere though and certainly long-term fans will find something for themselves.

The build up has been typically nonchalant with the band cooly setting the album loose. They are after all a band that do things their own way and that’s the tone of the album itself. This is The Strokes playing around and creating the record they wanted to for themselves more than anyone.

It doesn’t go as far as being self-indulgent, but it will test the listener at times. The band exist in rarified air however and that’s part of the charm of this album.

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Magazine

Full Pelt Magazine

Vol. 144

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Album Reviews

The Menzingers

The Menzingers

‘Everything I Ever Saw’

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THE MENZINGERS – Everything I Ever Saw – Album Review

Twenty years into their career, The Menzingers remain as vibrant as ever on their fantastic eighth album, ‘Everything I Ever Saw’.

Yes, the formula remains intact as the four-piece again convene heartfelt lyrics and stirring punk rock beauty together to stunning effect. You’re already a fan? This is for you. You’re only now discovering the band? Jump in because this is for you!

With substantial personal events and the continuing maddening of the world giving the band more than enough inspiration, these are songs written by a band capable of capturing pure emotion on tape.

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The Menzingers – ‘Better Angels’

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Working with long-time collaborator, producer Will Yip, the band have managed to record a quintessential Menzingers album that with get you thinking and feeling in equal measure.

‘Chance Encounters’, ‘Better Angels’ and ‘Nobody’s Heroes’ gave a good advance feel of the album but each of the eleven tracks adds value to the overall package.

The album concludes with the title-track which perfectly puts a bow on what these songs mean. Thematically, this record is about reminiscing on the past in order to better inform the future. Something we should perhaps all get better at doing.

After all history is there to learn from, and some people in power need to do just that. Still if history is going to repeat itself, The Menzingers producing another great album should be it!

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Yard Act

Yard Act

‘You’re Gonna Need a Little Music’

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yard act – You’re Gonna Need a Little Music – album review

Leeds art rockers Yard Act are back with their third full length, ‘You’re Gonna Need A Little Music’.

Forming from the ashes of past projects the band were one of those able to grab attention at a time when the world was standing still. Whilst their debut album, ‘The Overload’, lived up to the hype and fulfilled it’s need, you could tell come sophomore release, ‘Where’s My Utopia?’, that the band were on a journey.

That journey continues now as they evolve further on album number three. With those first two albums being recorded on laptops, this album sees the quartet make an album together in a room as a live band for the first time!

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘NEW BEGINNINGS’
Yard Act – ‘New Beginnings’

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The result is a collection that certainly feels more attuned to their rambunctious live shows. Those absorbing vocals are still front and centre, but the music feels more important than ever as the sonic ambience of the record builds upon their earlier work superbly.

Lyrically you’re unlikely to be surprised to find the band again delivering razor-sharp social observations and asking some direct questions of the world we find ourselves in. Given the state of the world, it’s also probably not a total surprise to observe the noted increase in dark tone and cynicism.

Yard Act have firmly established themselves as essential listening and this latest album is a band stretching their creative legs!

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