Getting harder and heavier with each album, Devon’s Kris Barras Band come flying out of the blocks on Halo Effect

Riff monster Kris Barras plays it heavy but clever on album number five, Halo Effect

Kris Barras Band - Halo Effect cover art
(Image: © Earache)

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Getting harder and heavier with each album, Devon’s Kris Barras Band come flying out of the blocks on this fourth release with a succession of tough riffs and memorable choruses. 

But what really sets it apart from their previous album, Death Valley Paradise, is the smart production that maintains a clarity of sound, no matter how big the riffs and choruses get. It also gives their musicianship a chance to shine. 

Unbreakable may be something of a headbangers’ ball, but the lyrics make clear just why the singer is not about to break, and there’s a whole range of varied techniques packed into the brief but incendiary guitar solo. 

Likewise the solid riffs and dynamic chorus of Savages, which is about kicking back against the put-downs, leave enough room to work in some clever electronic effects.

Hugh Fielder

Hugh Fielder has been writing about music for 47 years. Actually 58 if you include the essay he wrote about the Rolling Stones in exchange for taking time off school to see them at the Ipswich Gaumont in 1964. He was news editor of Sounds magazine from 1975 to 1992 and editor of Tower Records Top magazine from 1992 to 2001. Since then he has been freelance. He has interviewed the great, the good and the not so good and written books about some of them. His favourite possession is a piece of columnar basalt he brought back from Iceland.