This 5 piece from Peterborough release their debut album on the German based record label SPV, a home they share with ‘Monster Magnet’, ‘Motorhead’ and ‘Sepultura’ amongst others. From the outset it should be very clear what musical journey you’ll be taking over the next 50 minutes. Just in case there’s any doubt on their publicity shot, the band are a caricature of every metal band that has proceeded them; mean and moody looking, standing at dusk in the shadows, dressed in black, baring their tattoos, and generally looking like extras from a Mad Max Movie.
Clearly, it’s not meant to be pretty, trendy or fancy, and certainly don’t expect originality. But that said it rocks, and has clearly achieved the final goal that the band wanted to achieve. Pulsating drums, and guitar solos litter the tracks and help to crumble your eardrums on these dozen emotionally charged tracks. The band clearly give a balls-out delivery, and there’s something primal and post apocalyptic suggested by the titles of ‘Violate’ ‘Near Extinction’ ‘Paralysed’ ‘Born Freaks’ that captures the spirit of the music.
The tracks are anthemic and ‘The More I See’ have a firm grasp of the dynamics that bands such as ‘Tool’ and ‘Anthrax’ used to great effect, and they pay homage to that, and duplicate it to good effect. The problem is it all sounds rather dated; tracks like ‘Near Extinction’ and ‘Fall’ sound as though they should feature on the soundtrack to an 80’s b-movie that’s a “Top Gun” clone.
Overall the hard-hitting album works, it’s polished and the bands sheer determination drives through every track, although it still feels like it’s the sort of material that the headliners at ‘Ozzfest’88’ would have been performing!

Greg Thomas
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