» Music reviews: Metallica, Rose Hill Drive, Jeremy Warmsley & more…
This is the first Metallica album I’ve heard in its entirety, curious as to how they have become one of the most successful bands on planet Earth. The album, Death Magnetic, is not surprising, all about death and disaffection. And while they sing about it, they might just be thinking about their immense and jealously protected wealth. One of life’s abominations, this record surely deserves the quicksands of obliteration. AVOID!
If there was any musical justice left in the world then Rose Hill Drive would be enjoying something of the success of the aforementioned ‘band’. The brothers Sproule are a no-nonsense heads-down rock band, their melodic outpourings influenced by Nirvana, Hendrix and Southern rock.
They’ve come up organically and from the grassroots, and their new album Moon is the New Earth is packed with filthy rock grooves and riffs from beginning to end.
Underground sensations Bromheads Jacket continue to evade the radar of anointed indie respectability with the follow-up to their debut album Dits From the Commuter belt. This time around they’ve discovered the dirty scuzz of early Iggy and the Stooges, and added that to their unfeasibly large organ sounds and general psycho-garage garbage. Topped off with silly, infantile lyrics, they are really a quite awful, dumb-ass band.
The much loved Jeremy Warmsley is releasing his second album in the form of How We Became, another superb collection of melodic and sophisticated piano-led indie pop that displays the influences of Rufus Wainwright, Robert Wyatt and John Lennon within its sparkling songs.
At first glance, when you hear the word ‘punk’ and look at Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls, there’s the inevitable fear that we have another (unwanted) helping of fellow girl-group The Donnas. Luckily, their self-titled debut album is a much classier affair, drawing on new wave influences and brilliantly poppy Ramones songwriting prowess, whilst keeping a raw, relatively un-produced sound all their own.
Hardly capable of being any more different to the Vivian Girls is Lustmord, one of the founding fathers of industrial metal. Having worked with Throbbing Gristle, SPK and Coil over the years. Lustmord has roped in Tool’s Adam Jones, Isis’ Aaron Turner and Buzz Osborne from The Melvins for latest album, [OTHER]. A prolific sound designer for film and video games, his trademark ambient, almost intangible noise more than achieves its goal: creating a deep, layered and subtly menacing sonic terrain. A quiet triumph.
Finally, it’s time for a classic re-issue, and New Order’s magnum opus, Technique. First released in 1989, this saw a culmination of the post-Joy Division Hook, Sumner and Morris colliding splendidly with the acid house sound coming out of the continent to make a gloriously accessible fusion of dance and indie rock. Slightly dated sounding (but distinct because of this), the Madchester legends’ songwriting was never again as strong as on Technique.
