Silver P – Self Titled

Oct22

Providing a debut album easy to suspect most heavy metal fans will find plenty within to spark an eager appetite, Silver P is the solo project of guitarist Pugnale, alias Roberto Colombini. The self-titled release though also embraces a host of rock and metal flavours to its creative heart providing an even wider range of ears a rich and intriguing experience.

Creating Silver P early 2017, Pugnale approached drummer/sound engineer Antonio Inserillo with a clutch of songs a few months later, persuading him to get on board with the emerging project. Finding a singer was a more difficult issue but eventfully Alex Jarusso was enlisted to the Italian band’s line-up, in turn becoming a quartet for the album with bassist Alessandro Cola. Their sound takes inspiration from the likes of Airbourne, Dio, and Megadeth but finds its own if not unique certainly distinct voice within a first album released through Red Cat Records.

The Deep Breath Before The Plunge opens up the release, its dramatic instrumental landscape a firmly magnetic intro to the release. The imagination easily ran with its epic and growing theatre of intimation and sound before Fields Of War erupts from its portentous air with an armoury of infectious riffs and rhythmic confrontation. The classic/eighties metal influenced delivery of Jarusso soon erupts from the battlefield and though it is a general vocal flavouring which we generally find hard to embrace as a style, his presence and prowess only adds to the track’s heavy/classic metal nurtured appeal and enjoyment.

Pugnale’s guitar craft and enterprise is another potent feature and provides even more attention grabbing enticement within next up Road To Hell, his grooves wrapping round ears with infectious intent as the rhythms of Inserillo and Cola rap and throb with flirtatious aggression. Growing into a definite best track contender it is swiftly rivalled by the blues rock lined strum of Memories; a track with a whiff of stoner rock and grunge to its relatively calm but increasingly tempestuous climate

Thrash and alternative hues colour the metal heart of The Net, wiry grooves luring quick pleasure into a just as enjoyable web of heavy and classic metal smelted invention. It is a trap as unpredictable as it is familiar in certain ways and another song adding to the album’s best passage of tracks though A Shade In Light with its opening feral riffs and nagging grooves within predacious shadows is as attention enslaving as anything around it. It never relinquishes that hold either as its dark trespass and melody woven predation continues to captivate.

Out Of This World follows and also ensures a compelling engagement with ears and appetite. It too has a darkness to its body and air which is disrupted and seared by bewitching sonic flames and melody hot tendrils and it is maybe no coincidence that for us the truly standout tracks are those bred in the shadows.

The thrash poked chug of I8 is old school metal/hard rock at its most wild and frivolous but built on open craft and adventurous mischief which seems to get more daring by the twist while Straight At The Heart closes things up by uncaging a rock ‘n’ roll holler not too hard to have body and spirit bouncing with.

Generally classic/heavy metal is a flavour others will appreciate more than us here but we cannot deny that Silver P, band and album, pleasured and captivated before getting under the skin in many ways.

Silver P is out now via Red Cat Records across all worldwide digital stores.

https://www.facebook.com/SilverPugnale

Pete RingMaster 18/10/2018

The Ugly Kings – Darkness Is My Home

Apr30

Towards the tail of last year Australian blues rockers The Ugly Kings left a rather fertile and extremely tasty teaser for their debut album in the shape of two-track single Promised Land. Now we can reveal that all the hints and intimation offered then of something special coming ahead have been forcibly realised with the band’s first full-length, Darkness Is My Home. The release is a powder keg of muscular rock ‘n’ roll, a cauldron of suggestion and haunting darkness, and most of all simply one of the most powerful creative roars heard in a long time.

From the coarse grain of the delicious bass sound to the suggestive clang of the guitars and from the lyrical atmospherics to their vocal realisation, Darkness Is My Home is pure uncompromising temptation, one as dynamic as it is seductive and as cinematic as it is intimately haunting. In fact it is so much more than that outstanding first single implied, and still offering more after a multitude of listens.

Formed in 2011, the Melbourne quartet soon stirred local and subsequently national attention through their live presence and in turn 2015 mini album Of Sons. The past two years has seen the band share the stage with Rival Sons in Melbourne (2016), support Airbourne on their successful sold out 2017 east coast Australia tour and this year open for Papa Roach on their two shows in The Ugly Kings home city. Darkness Is My Home can only open bigger doors and opportunities, the album thrusting the band into the realm of the big boys without even a knock on the door.

The album opens with the outstanding Promised Land and instantly hooks ears with its initial lure of sultry guitar and vocal expression. Frontman Rusty Clark has a voice which commands attention, a musical orator you just want to listen to and backed by just as compelling sound throughout song and release. The smouldering brooding of the song is transfixing, only escalating its lure as resonating beats and the first of a tide of irresistible basslines across Darkness Is My Home breaks. Igniting into a robust stroll with a searing groove, the track is pure captivation and increasingly so as it repeats its cycle with greater lust and vigour. Rock ‘n’ roll does not come much better as this imposingly infectious and skilfully manipulative encounter though it is undoubtedly matched throughout the album.

The following Black Widow also makes an instant impact with the beats of Andy Alkemade sending ripples of resonance across the senses with every impact before Christos Athanasias’ guitar begins its prowl alongside Clark’s vocal incitement. The earthy growl of Nick Dumont’s bass is just as riveting, the four conjuring a predatory yet seductive dark romance with threat in every note and suggestion in every syllable. Influences to the band include the likes of The Doors, Jack White, Black Sabbath, and Royal Blood, flavours you can sense but as in the first and those to come the track is as unique to The Ugly Kings as you could wish.

The fiery rock ‘n’ roll of Raging Bull has a more animated gait though it comes in an ebb and flow which stabs at the senses with purpose and mischief before being uncaged in a rich blaze of melodic lava while Killing Time borders on the carnivorous with its gorgeously gnarly bassline and romantic with its melodic and vocal reflection. The uniting of contrasting textures is masterful and Dumont’s bass manna for personal tastes whilst the song’s croon is just impossible to resist. Both songs light up ears and imagination, fire up the passions though we can say that about every track within Darkness Is My Home.

Love Enemy with its slow swagger of a stroll brings calm after the clamour of its predecessor but one lined with dark provocative shadows and magnetism as sinister as it is infectious. Its catchiness is inescapable, swaying hips and over worked neck muscles our evidence with the imagination just as involved as words and tendrils of sonic enterprise entangle before You And Me brings is boozier intoxication to bear on ears. The band’s passion for the blues is a constant roar in their skilfully eclectic sound, The Ugly Kings infusing it into their own power fuelled designs, each individual to the next as proven by the volcanic heat and earnest swing of yet another gem.

Another great trait of the album is that every song feels like old friends within a couple of listens, Lazarus drawing vocal chords into play even before it finishes its first influential roar, the ballad a pyre of power and individual intensity.

The album is brought to a just as rich close by firstly Little Birdy Told Me; a cauldron of senses singed grooves and ever welcomed rhythmic trespasses aligned to the striking prowess of vocals and unpredictability, and lastly The Fire. The closer has the heat its title suggests but before it reaches that intensity, simmers and smoulders around vocal melancholy and defiance. When it catches, the track is a furnace of sound and intensity but just as powerful when it’s sonic and atmospheric kindling is just glowing.

Darkness Is My Home is quite simply glorious, a rousing beacon among already a host of great and powerful heavy rock releases. The Ugly Kings better get their passports in order because we get the feeling the world is going to want them blazing away in their backyards hereon in.

Darkness Is My Home is out now via Kozmik Artifactz; available @ https://theuglykings.bandcamp.com/ and http://smarturl.it/DarknessIsMyHome

https://www.facebook.com/TheUglyKings/ https://twitter.com/theuglykings https://theuglykings.bandcamp.com/

Pete RingMaster 25/04/2018

Zeroking: Kings Of Self Destruction

Jul4

Enthusiastic and unfussy yet openly addictive is the only way to describe the latest album from US hard rock band Zeroking. With an obvious intent to have and give the fullest of best times Kings Of Self Destruction simply leads the ear and emotions on a boisterous and mischievous rampage through insatiable riffs and fully loaded melodic enterprise. It is not the most inventive or ground shaking of releases but it sure is one of the more eagerly enjoyable.

Formed in 2005, the Huntington West Virginia quartet of vocalist Andy Haught, guitarist Shane Day, alongside Paul First and Chris Webb on bass and drums respectively, took no time in garnering strong attention and growing acclaimed from their debut EP Sweet Sale Of Excess in 2006 and the sharing of stages with the likes of Anthrax, Twisted Sister, Bobaflex, Jackyl, Dope, Black Stone Cherry, and Airbourne, as well as impressive appearance at various festivals. Listening to their album it is no surprise, the impossible to ignore songs a feast of infectious melodic imagination and feisty addictive riffs and honest rock sounds. As mentioned there is not anything particularly startling or unique to the release but do not mistake that for it being flat or boring. Kings Of Self Destruction is a thrilling ride from first song to last, a familiar but inventive party to fully engage with from beginning to end.

The recording of the album began with producer and engineer Steve Riley mid 2009 and last year saw Zeroking release the EP A Taste Of Self Destruction which featured three tracks from the album as a teaser and followed previous single Stone Cold Bitch/Girls of California, the pair of songs also appearing on the release. Both garnered impressive acclaim and marked the album, as one to eagerly or impatiently wait for.

From the opening Dead Rock Star the band unleash a riot of sounds and songs which recall a brew of flavours from the likes of Guns N’ Roses Motley Crue, Saliva, Seether, and Buckcherry to name a few. Anthemic and rife with the best rock/metal tendencies, the album pulls you to your feet from the off and leaves it breathing heavily and sweating satisfaction. The opener incites only enthused responses to its familiar and compulsive sounds. It might play like an old friend but it is a fresh and vibrant returning buddy which lights up the senses and invites full union, something you can tag the whole release as.

The following Forget Vegas with its breezy swagger and flashy horns immediately is evidence to the diversity across the album soon backed by She Said with its twisting riffs and brooding bass sounds of First. It is a more reserved saunter through the ear than previous songs though still has the impetuosity which endears across Kings Of Self Destruction.

Showtime Revolution is an immediate highlight as soon as it entraps the ear with addictive hooks and a melodic infection to ignite inner fires. The guitar of Day is an electrified bristling delight whilst the rhythms of Webb jab and punch with the precision of a middleweight to drive the song home wonderfully. Vocalist Haught as on every song is an impressive focal point without distracting from the quality the rest of the band offer every time.

Songs like the sexy blues bar room joy Southern Lady, Ex-Godiva, the mesmeric Love Is Dead featuring the fine emotive voice of Stacee Laswson, and the aural contagion that is the title track, lead the senses into more devilment with a varied and wicked glint in their individual eyes. Again the music is uncomplicated, immediately your best friend, and completely infectious. To be honest hard rock has never been our favourite flavour at the RR but when it comes with such vitality and pleasure as that brought by Zeroking there is not a whisper of complaint to be heard.

The excitable metal veined treat which is Girls Of California leads the climax of the album to be ably supported by songs such as the teasing and incendiary stomp Black Friday and the majestic emotive ballad Valentine, the release continuing the strong and open diversity it started and persisted with.

Kings Of Self Destruction is an excellent riot of rock n roll sure to find a home in every rock and metal heart. Honest and without pretensions the release is nothing but enjoyment and Zeroking a band who deserves more than a minute of any ones time.

https://www.facebook.com/Zerokingfans

Ringmaster 04/07/2012