Alt-UK

Music, Film, and Gaming

Archives for June 17, 2008

Truckfighters – Phi

by Leave a Comment

‘Phi’ is the 2007 album release from Truckfighters; a stoner rock band from Sweden. This is a ten track album of hard hitting rock and from start to finish here the guitar riffs are heavy and the drumbeats also are mightily impressive. This is not the most original album ever released, it does however provide for quite an entertaining hour of music. The tracks progress well here and the vocals also are well put across in the sound albeit rather unspectacularly.

If you’re a fan of stoner rock then you’ll find very little that is new here, the sound created is quite contrived and yet the album is still rather interesting. The music has been intelligently put together, the band is not short of a strong idea or two and always the intricate guitar work of Truckfighters is absolutely excellent. This is not the best rock album you’ll ever hear, it is however one that is still well worth listening to. Opening track ‘Atomic’ is particularly strong here, ‘Slacken’ also is an excellent piece of music and closing track ‘The Game’ most definitely ends the album on a high. This album is absolutely jam packed full of quality, never is there a dull moment and always the instrumental work is highly impressive.

There are a number of excellent guitar solos scattered throughout this album, almost every track contains one in fact and this always gives the band an excellent chance to showcase their strongest element; the guitar sound. Vocally there are a few weaknesses here, for the most part the vocals come across well but there are a few occasions when definite vocal weakness is shown. Even when the band is not showing itself to be vocally impressive the guitar solos are still there to keep you entertained, the guitar work always is greatly impressive and this I feel is the bands main forte. The drums provide an excellent backbeat to the sound, full credit to Truckfighters on the instrumental side of things here; the bands members most certainly possess a lot of talent and always the band is out to impress here.

If you like a good bit of hard hitting rock or have a strong appreciation for fine guitar work then ‘Phi’ is an album that I’d definitely recommend listening to. This is not the most original stoner rock album you’ll ever come across, it is however quite an impressive ten track offering of music and throughout this release Truckfighters show off a fine talent for creating an excellent rock sound. The guitar is extremely central to the excellence of the music of Truckfighters, there is great talent to be found in this area of the bands work and never does the instrumental side of Truckfighters music disappoint. Despite a few vocal weaknesses and a fairly unoriginal overall approach; ‘Phi’ is still a pretty decent album and the production values also are supremely strong here.

Label: Fuzzorama Records
Release Date: October 8th 2007

Rating:
Review StarReview StarReview Star

iNsoFar – Medicine For The Melancholic

by Leave a Comment

‘Medicine For The Melancholic’ is an eight track EP from the great British rock band that is iNsoFar. The band has an extremely energetic rock sound, the music created here by iNsoFar always is strong and never is there a dull moment as the band smashes its way powerfully through this release. The production of the EP is not great, this I feel detracts a little from the overall quality of the release but still this ‘Medicine For The Melancholic’ EP provides for an entertaining twenty six minutes of music.

Throughout this EP the vocal performance always is excellent, instrumentally the music of iNsoFar also has plenty to offer and ever element of the bands sound comes together strongly here. As I’ve already mentioned before; the production of this EP is not great and the sound levels at times sound a little off, the bands great enthusiasm does however always comes shining through in the music. All the tracks on this EP are quite similar, variation is not a strong point of the iNsoFar sound but certainly the guitar riffs always are powerful and the vocal performance is at all times extremely impressive.

Opening track ‘Reach Out’ is my personal favourite from this EP, it has a fantastic sing along quality and the chorus is hugely hard hitting. This track is belted out by iNsoFar, the backing vocals are extremely quiet in the mix but the music does still come across well here. Were the production greater here then this one would have great potential as a chart busting commercial rock classic I feel; the production of the track most definitely holds the music back here but the supreme quality of the sound can still be heard.

With this EP iNsoFar shows great potential as a band, there’s a lot of passion in the performance and the energy levels also are always kept incredibly high. The vocals do I feel suffer most heavily from the poor production values, improvements in production are required for the bands next release I feel and this will without doubt improve upon the overall quality and effectiveness of the music. iNsoFar have something great going here, this is energetic rock at its finest and every element of the bands sound already sounds extremely strong. iNsoFar has only been active as a band now since the end of 2004, already the band has built up a terrific togetherness however and with this ‘Medicine For The Melancholic’ EP iNsoFar has put together a powerful eight tracks of music. I see iNsoFar going from strength to strength as a band over the next few years and with heightened production values this band is surely capable of creating something really rather special.

Label: Not On Your Radio
Release Date: November 19th 2007

Rating:
Review StarReview StarReview Star

IAMX – The Alternative

by Leave a Comment

‘The Alternative’ is the 2007 release from IAMX, an album written and produced by Chris Corner. IAMX is in fact a solo project of Chris Corner, a name he has been using now since 2003. This is the second album from IAMX, a minimalist approach has been taken with this record and the music created here possesses an electronic synth sound. I think it’s safe to say that I wasn’t very impressed with what I heard from this twelve track album, the songs all seem to lack direction and the overall musical creation here is really rather bland.

Every track on this album is extremely repetitive, this is something that is always to be expected really with electronic music but this sound just doesn’t work here. The album has quite an industrial edge, there is some strong and powerful use of guitar in the sound but not enough use is made of the guitar here for my liking. Almost every track on this album surpasses the four minute mark, the tracks drag and there is little here to really ever keep you entertained. The vocal tone of Chris Corner is pleasant, not hugely hard hitting however and this album therefore leaves very little impact whatsoever.

If I were to pick a highlight or two from this album then I would have to concede that the industrial edge of ‘Nightlife’ is quite impressive and also that an excellent driving guitar sound is utilised in the track ‘The Negative Sex’. Neither of these tracks is entirely excellent however and every track on this album possesses moments of absolute blandness. The music lacks power here, the vocal tone of Chris Corner is not bad but it does often come across as a little too weak to ever be particularly effective. The thing about this album is that the electronic sound created here has all been done before and done a lot better too. The lyrics are dreadful; the instrumental element is weak, and very rarely does the vocal performance actually impress. The vocals are not bad, they’re just a bit soft and this coupled with the dreadful nature of the lyrics provides for really quite a painful overall listening experience.

If you like the music of Depeche Mode then you’ll possibly like IAMX also; the music is nowhere near as good but it’s all done in a similar sort of fashion anyway. ‘The Alternative’ is an incredibly bland album, the lyrics are poorly constructed in the sound and the vocals also lack passion and power. I would definitely not recommend listening to this album, if you like the electronic synth-pop sort of sound then there are a lot of better artists out there than this; that’s for sure. It’s probably best to avoid this one; it’s not really worth wasting your time listening to the so-called ‘Alternative’.

Label: NoCarbon Records
Release Date: November 2nd 2007

Rating:
Review Star

Goat The Head – Simian Supremacy

by Leave a Comment

Goat The Head is a Norwegian death metal band, ‘Simian Supremacy’ is the bands debut full length release and according to the cover it is brought to us ‘by means of primal caveman death metal’. This is a band that prides itself in being primitive in sound, the music is brutal and the bands caveman instincts certainly shine through strongly here. The caveman gimmick of this band is really quite an amusing one, due to the gimmicky nature of the bands approach however I fail really to ever take the music of this album particularly seriously. Fourteen tracks are contained within this ‘Simian Supremacy’ album, and with titles such as ‘Beast Man’, ‘Bone Throne’, and ‘Darwinian Minions’ the band is relentless in putting across its primitive point.

The music is kept simple at all times throughout this album, it’s quite an effective sound but always there is that underlying element of the caveman marketing strategy that has been used here. In all areas the music is quite well put across by the band, this is a decent display of extreme sound but I just wish the band didn’t feel the need to rely on a gimmick to sell records. Goat The Head is not really a band doing anything new, the sound created here merely sees the band recycling popular death metal guitar riffs of old and placing atop of this sound truly generic grunted and growled vocals. The lyrics are at times a little laughable here but in the main you can’t quite decipher what the bands singer is saying anyway so it doesn’t really matter. The titles of the tracks usually come across quite clearly in the vocals, other than that however you’ll have to strain your ears a lot if you’re wishing to make out the lyrical content of this album.

Goat The Head is a band that is relying very much on an extremely gimmicky approach, the band is signed to TABU Recordings and quite honestly I don’t know why the label saw it fit so sign them. The music is not bad as such here, it’s just not at all original and although when you listen to this album you’ll rise a wry smile; you’ll ultimately wonder why on earth the four members of this band are wasting their time and talents in a project of ‘contemporary primal caveman death metal’ when surely they could be using their musical expertise elsewhere and coming up with music that is a tad more original and a smidgeon less contrived.

If you think it’s cool to like such bands as Send More Paramedics and Cannibal Corpse then you’ll probably quite like the music of Goat The Head also. Whereas the other two bands mentioned deal with the subjects of cannibalism and zombies, Goat The Head instead choose cavemen as their gimmicky musical subject of choice and although it’s fun to listen to the bands music for a few minutes; it soon all becomes rather tiresome. Don’t get me wrong, ‘Simian Supremacy’ is not technically a particularly bad album but it’s certainly not at all original. Goat The Head should take their wooden clubs, remove their animal fur, return to the drawing board and have a little think about what they’ve come up with here; the stone age needs to be left well and truly behind and the four members of this band must really now move onto pastures new.

Label: TABU Recordings
Release Date: November 19th 2007

Rating:
Review StarReview Star