Reviews: These Wicked Rivers, Black Water Redemption, Scorpion Milk, POHL & Ogives Big Band (Matt Bladen)

These Wicked Rivers - Fire And Folklore (Fat Earth Records)

Everywhere I see genre tags for These Wicked Rivers, I see stoner and I just don't hear it, southern rock on tracks like Horse To Water? Absolutely, this maybe a mistake on the internets part but it's doing These Wicked Rivers a disservice.

They have an authenticity with their southern blues rocking, despite they come from Belper in Derbyshire, which is about as far from the Delta as you can be, but there's no dirty stoner riffs to be found on Fire & Folklore, there's lots of anthemic stadium rocking, with soul which is what they do very well.

Consisting of John Hartwell (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Arran Day (lead guitar/backing vocals), Adam Brewell (bass), Dan Southall (drums) and Rich Wilson (multi-instrumentalist) they've been spreading their soulful rock music around the country and beyond since 2014.

However with album number three they return home, recording the album in Belper alongside Andy Sneap and Colin Richardson, who need no introduction, but have an impact on the British rock and metal scene that is undeniable,

These close links to their hometown makes Fire And Folklore sounds like These Wicked Rivers at their most honest, from the emotive Brother Oh Brother to the organ drenched Love To Love, there's honesty in this songwriting as The Healing has a heavy blues rock strut and Woodland Queen has the twin harmonies of The Allman Brothers or Black Stone Cherry.

It's the sound of These Wicked Rivers exploring new routes with their 'Wizard Blues' but never starting too far from the band they started in 2014, take for instance Better Man, which is a soaring ballad that will gain them massive radio play, as barstool anthem Sing Another Song brings crossover appeal as fellow Derbyshire performer Kezia Gill adds her sublime country vocals.

Returning home has given These Wicked Rivers a chance to write a more personal record that experiments with their core style adding to it very well, these are the songs of Fire And Folklore, with These Wicked Rivers the perfect storytellers. 8/10

Black Water Redemption - Black Water Redemption (Self Released)

Rockers Black Water Redemption, emerge from the depths of Southampton with their self titled debut album.

Don't think that they're some upstart band of yoofs as they were formed by former members of Western Sand, so the musicians involved in this band having been road dogs for many years, making Black Water Redemption a new band but with veteran experience.

You can hear that from the opening riff of Stand For Something, as Black Water Redemption play big swaggering riffs that have massive grooves, a modern muscle and the attitude of grunge, shedding some of their Southern style from their previous life into a heavier style overall.

Reminding me of Stone Temple Pilots meets Guns N Roses, (so Velvet Revolver) they also have some Skid Row and the current crop of NWOCR included too, but BWC vary their approach on this record. From the melodic radio cuts, to the heavier guitar workouts, there's piano balladry on Fly Like The Crow which feels like Black Label Society playing Mr Big.

With arena ready grooves from Dan de Vries (bass) and Chris Allen (drums), modern rock riffs/solos from Tyler Hains and gritty vocals from Adam Chambers, Black Water Redemption's debut record is strong opening statement from these experienced rockers. 7/10

Scorpion Milk - Flesh Masks For Skulls (Peaceville)

The recently launched new project from Beastmilk, Grave Pleasures, Hexvessel and Dødheimsgard man Mat McNerney.

Scorpion Milk continues the trend of delving into the 'Apocalyptic Post-Punk' he's been creating with Beastmilk and Grave Pleasures, but leaning more towards the former as he adds more of his black metal background to Scorpion Milk, making for post punk that sits at a darker place.

Following up the debut album Slime Of The Times comes this new EP Flesh Masks For Skulls, consisting of three new songs, two covers and remix of a track from the debut, so let's deal with the remix first and Norwegian virtuoso collective Ulver have totally reinvented All Snakes No Ladders from the debut.

Metamorphosing it into a lost Depeche Mode track, the relentless electronic drum patterns matched by the acoustic ones for propulsion straight out of the 80's as Ulver make the track their own with Scorpion Milk mastermind Mat McNerney's voclas shifting to something more frenzied at the climax.

The covers are ingenious versions of new wave oddities Devo and post punk legends Gang Of Four as What We All Want gets a distorted make over that puts some haunting black metal put into it while Gut Feeling goes through a post punk echoplex and some jagged melodies.

As for the three new tracks Dreaming Skulls is raw opener, dissonant Crushed Under The Weight is the heaviest cut while Guilty By Default has a propulsive jangle straight out of 1984, as it seems there plenty to come from Scorpion Milk, welcome the apocalypse. 8/10

POHL & Ogives Big Band - Split (Ripcord Records)

Sheffield noise and Bristol riffs collide as POHL and Ogives Big Band combine their powers for this Spilt album with Ripcord Records the force bringing them together in some ear bleeding union.

This is the underground scene of the UK and you'll need earplugs as though we've covered the Big Band here before, in a couple of forms actually, and we've also covered POHL, so having both in one place on this spilt may attract one to the other. The first four tracks are from Ogives Big Band and the last one is a 17 minute monster from POHL.

The four tracks are just what you want from Ogives Big Band, psychedelic sludge with obtuse riffage and frenzied vocals, never really sticking at one style for long, with I'm Glad You Exist raging like a lost Mastodon track, as The Patron Saint Of Lost Causes blends Opeth with At The Drive In, that mathy angular explosivity continuing through Dragging The Plates.

This is more direct Ogives Big Band, the psych elements on the fringes as the technical riffage takes over, it retains their unique quirks with sprirt of Deftones coming on Read Us The Book Of The Names Of The Dead, but overall these four tracks show a band with a new aggression and pace.

Pace being something that POHL really make their own, this psychedelic noise trio are unpredictable, as the sprawling Flayed Lord Prayer showcases to close this spilt. An epic cut where first section though is oppressive atmospheric doom, which crawls and grasps at the dying light before it truly kicks off.

An expulsion of percussive psych rock, that features saxophone blasts, like a demented jazz act, which often accompanies some anthemic alt rock catharsis, huge walls of guitars, extra fuzzy bass and some delicious drumming keeps your mind active to what's going on as 17 minutes flies by before the lats notes of dying sax finish this spilt.

Showing the talents of two of the UK's most interesting underground bands, if you're new to them start here and get acquainted with Ogives Big Band and POHL. 8/10