You can trust Louder
Playing in a Sunday league football team with Steve Harris can only
They’ve lost a singer (Henry Rundell), but gained a better one, with the bluesy Luke Purdie going from a standing start to Chris Cornell levels of chest-beating on standouts like Take Aim, and fusing well with the old-school riffs, shred solos and ever-so-slightly earnest lyrics.
You could argue that it’s all a little relentless, and doesn’t have enough light and shade, but ultimately you’ll bang your head far more than you’ll shake it.
Back in 2008, bassist and de facto bandleader Tony Newton told this writer that he wasn’t “doing this to be some little number on the bill”. This album should see them leapfrog Feeder, at the very least.
Henry Yates has been a freelance journalist since 2002 and written about music for titles including The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Classic Rock, Guitarist, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer. He is the author of Walter Trout's official biography, Rescued From Reality, a music pundit on Times Radio and BBC TV, and an interviewer who has spoken to Brian May, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie Wood, Dave Grohl, Marilyn Manson, Kiefer Sutherland and many more.