Yes - The Quest (Inside Out/Sony Music)
The 22nd album from British prog rock stalwarts is their first featuring Billy Sherwood since 1999's The Ladder and their first since the death of founding member Chris Squire. So it is the first album without any original members of the band. Although none of this matters really as Yes has always had a fluid membership policy with members coming, going and collaborating outside of the band as well. First thing to mention is that The Quest doesn't deviate from that classic melancholic, fantastical folky sound the band are known for. Also despite being a band known for epics and this album running at 61 minutes there's nothing that approaches an epic running time. Though they aren't four minute pop songs, The Ice Bridge is a three part, 7 minute opening number written by longtime vocalist Jon Davidson and keyboardist Geoff Downes, though because it is similar to The Dawn Of An Era by English composer Francis Monkman, Monkman gets a credit.
Downes erroneously thought the the song had been composed by him back in 1977. But realised that it was actually Monkman, so a conversation between the two sorted everything out. (I mean it doesn't get much more muso than that!). The song itself deals with climate change and is quite a dark piece for the band, the parping synths kicking us off with Sherwood's basslines driving it. Dare To Know brings some of the AOR flourishes the band are known for, the orchestrations of Paul Joyce played with virtuosity by the North Macedonian FAMES Orchestra. It's interesting to see how much of the writing Davidson does, having half the credits with Steve Howe but it never strays far from what many will think is the classic Yes sound. The folksy Future Memories, the funkadelic Leave Well Alone and the cosmic The Western Edge all destined to be future favourites. Lush keys, soaring guitars, jazzy rhythms and vocal harmonies between Davidson, Howe and Sherwood are basically de-rigueur for every track resulting in an album that is confidently carrying Chris Squire's legacy forward. 8/10
The Wildhearts - 21st Century Love Songs (Graphite Records)
Ginger, C.J, Rich & Danny, make up the long running bastions of take no prisoners rock band The Wildhearts. A band who are almost impossible to pigeonhole, uncompromising about their approach and worshiped by one of the most loyal fan bases ever. After the major success of their previous album The Renaissance Men the band are in a deep purple patch, after a 10 year lay off. So when this touring machine was ground to a halt due to Covid they went into the studio to start writing this new album. With a lot of time and freedom they have come up with the most diverse offering since 1995's P.H.U.Q. Taking no specific style, what we have here is a fiery collection of anthems for the disenfranchised but hopeful.
Bouncy riffs are pumped out with a biting guitar tone, choruses are sung fully throated, aching to be shouted back at the band as they dive through power pop, punk, grunge and straight up rock n roll, lyrics about mental health (My Head Wants Me Dead), politics (Institutionalised Submission), internet experts (You Do You) and the strange times we live in. 21st Century Love Songs is filled with snarky, sarcastic storytelling as Ginger using Sort Your Fucking Shit Out as a metaphor for many, this will be a live favourite, I have no doubt but this entire album is bursting with anthemic tunes, many of which will have been heard at their numerous festival dates this summer and the extensive UK tour that started on Saturday! With a new lease of life as a band The Wildhearts still pull out cracking tunes and defy genres. Few bands embody rock n roll as much as they do and this album is more evidence of their semi-legendary status. 8/10
Hunted – Deliver Us (Pitch Black Records)
Somethings take time. Some things however take a bloody long time. Trying to move themselves into the release rate of Guns N Roses or Pink Floyd. Cardiff based progressive metal act Hunted have finally released a follow up to their 2010 debut Welcome The Dead. Having signed with Pitch Black Records and now a four piece they band have returned after a hiatus but as Velvet Worm’s grooving riffs get the record going, everything that made the band so brilliant 10 years ago makes them just as unique today. Intricacy and technical compositions are matched with heaviness and power, recalling bands such as Control Denied and Nevermore. It’s an obvious attempt to up the experimental nature of the music as Deliver Us takes this style of metal to the farthest reaches. The spirit of Nevermore looms large with Chris G’s vocals being the closest thing to Warrell Dane anyone can get, his massive range means that the instrumentals can go pretty much anywhere stylistically and he’ll be able to adapt. Musically they do go anywhere, the songs rarely sticking in one time signature for long, Matt ‘Animal’ Thomas’ furious, focussed drumming and Jon Letson’s fluid bass (see the break in Salvation On A String) creating the shifts and pace changes as Steve Barberini conjures soundscapes with his playing. It means that if you do not like your progressive metal with a capital P then you may find Deliver Us a little too much to take in. Theatricality sits side to side with intensity as the songs are seasoned with classic metal, doom, death, thrash and even jazz at times. Nevermore is the biggest influence but bands such as Psychotic Waltz, Fates Warning, Savatage and even Iron Maiden can all be referenced, the sound engineering of Tim Hamill at Sonic One Studios making sure that the album is bold and ballsy. As far as picking out individual tracks goes Burning Ones is the sort of progressive heavy thrash Iced Earth used to make, the drumming shifting at supersonic speed as the riff itself goes from a mid-paced chug to a power metal gallop, The Black Shore pairs Priest with Santuary, while One Final Embrace is a haunting ballad, where the band tone down the progression and up the melancholy as this dark, despair filled number ends the album with directness and emotion but on the CD edition segues into their cover of Angeles Del Infierno’s Maldito Sea Tu Nombre, which is sung in Spanish. After an 11 year absence, Hunted return with an extremely progressive new album. There's life in the old dog yet! 9/10
Mastiff – Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth (eOne)
Mastiff are the musical equivalent of a Dementor. For those who don’t know what that is, they are wraith-like creatures that feed on human happiness from the Harry Potterverse. Mastiff feed on human happiness, they feed on all emotions except pure unbridled hatred. It’s no wonder that the press release from Hold Tight that came with this just said THEY HATE YOU in all caps. Dragging themselves out of Kingston-Upon-Hull Mastiff are the miserable town in musical form, equally depressing and bewildering, their goal is to cause agony with their less than delightful fusion of grindcore, sludge, powerviolence and noise. Now don’t get me wrong, I like this album, for all the reasons I mentioned before but maybe don’t play it at a birthday party. Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth is their third full length album, following their 2019 release Plague which gained high praise from Paul Scoble when he reviewed it, upon the first play of this third release, I instantly knew I would have to heap on the praise as well. From the opening slither of The Hiss, a discordant intro that slowly gets louder and more disquieting as it does Mastiff show that they aren’t here to fuck around. A duo such as Midnight Creeper and Beige Sabbath are just two of the reasons why this Mastiff album gets you around the throat the first is a 2 minute blast of outright blackened aggression while the second is skin tearing grindcore number that also is not much longer than two minutes. There’s no time for atmosphere building, the intention is to hit at full force, carpet bombing you with raging riffs and violent vocal shouts. They have been compared to Napalm Death and This Is Hell and it’s clear to understand why as their music is uncompromisingly brutal, spilling out with bile with every attack of an instrument or bark down a mic. There is a total absence of beauty or hope in this record, it’s miserable and proud as punch about it. Perhaps Hull council could enlist Mastiff as their official musical directors, it would turn some heads! 8/10
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