Numb – Self Titled

September is proving this year’s most productive month for striking releases and to support the claim allow us to introduce the debut album from British outfit Numb. The self-titled introduction offers up eight slices of rousing multi-flavoured rock littered with imagination spearing hooks and ear thrilling grooves. The band is also no lightweight in casting fiery seductive melodies and a rhythmic incitement which has feet and hips as submissive as the senses to the combined temptation.

Formed in 2015, Numb was the rekindling of an already established long term musical collaboration between guitarist songwriter Darren Caven-Quantrill and multi-instrumentalist composer Barney Byron (The Calling, Audioeinstein) which quickly enlisted lyricist and vocalist Lee Rayner. With its line-up subsequently completed by drummer Damo Falkowski (Deadeye), the Northampton band took their time writing and honing the sound now lighting up their debut like a beacon.

The album instantly has ears seriously attentive with the initial groove of Common Love, the lure a riveting enticement soon supported by rhythmic tenacity and a wave of infectious riffs. Establishing a stirring surge of rock ‘’n roll, the track continues to build its body and alternative nurtured temptation. The vocals of Rayner similarly grab the appetite, his tone and words bouncing on the web of guitars and bass as a great blues spicing lines the grooving and urgency guides riffs and beats but with a control and invention which enhances the instinctive infectiousness of it all.

It is an outstanding start swiftly eclipsed by the following Love Of The Cartel (Part 2). Instantly a Latin melody hugs grooves as the track seduces with a great Breed 77 like air, indeed there is a feel of the band’s frontman, Paul Isola, to Rayner’s tone. Swinging with eager and muscular dexterity, the song is pure temptation grabbing body and spirit with swift success. Not for the last time in a Numb song there is a feel of rockabilly spiced rock ‘n’ roll at work within the tapestry of metal and heavy rock and that catchiness which again simply infests the psyche.

Everyman Deserves The Right To Choose His Own Path To Hell comes next, it too sharing a spicing of the aforementioned Gibraltar band within its more composed gait. Riffs jab as beats stab, melodic flames surrounding the potent vocals of Rayner as it heads to another contagion loaded chorus so easy to get wrapped up in. There is a great theatre to the song which is only enhanced by the Muse-esque venture of the guitar towards its tantalising finale, a spirit sparking climax perfectly setting up the appetite for the compelling enterprise of Time. The stringed temptation of the guitars is instant seduction and only accentuated by the rampaging thick tide of riffs and the tone gurning bass. The song relaxes into a stable energy as vocals enter the affair but eventually everything becomes turned on and hits top gear with mouth-watering imagination. The song is glorious, never settling down into any sense of predictability with each cycle a new and fresh adventure.

There is an industrial hue to certainly the opening bait of The Tears You Cry, its cosmopolitan suggestion aligned to thought teasing melody before it all evolves into a raptorial rock ‘n’ roll prowl led by Rayner’s expressive presence. The bolder invention of its predecessor is more subdued in the track but not absent and it does not stop it grabbing tightly ears and a by now greedy appetite for the release and increasing the pleasure. That extra strain of imagination is saved instead for successor Love Of The Cartel (Part 1). Why part 1 is after 2 we cannot say but the track is a journey of sound and emotion in its own extensive right. Caressing melodies court Rayner’s emotive voice, the bass a melancholic yet vibrant companion as the song reveals its creative and emotional drama. Like a growing battlefield within which sabre like hooks flash and fly as riffs and running grooves entwine and rhythms badger the senses, the track is sheer magnetism. In time volatility hits voice and heart, antagonism fuelling emotional outbursts before it is all pulled back into the surging infection of the thrilling encounter.

The release is concluded by the final pair of War and Burn. The first carries a steely antagonism in its riffs and rhythms, a defiant attitude which shapes the song’s physical and vocal character as well as its melodic reflection, while the second rumbles and grumbles with a Danzig like hue, twisting with irritability and turning with complimenting temptation. Both tracks leave greed for band and sound further intense and with us an already impatient anticipation for what comes next from Numb.

There are numerous times when as a reviewer you feel really blessed to have the opportunity to cover new music and there are other times when you feel truly honoured; this is one of the latter moments.

The Numb album is available now through Attic Records @ http://atticrecordsuk.bigcartel.com/product/numb

https://www.facebook.com/NUMB.co.uk/    https://twitter.com/Numbsters

Pete RingMaster 15/09/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Temple Of Lies – The Serial Killer Suite

From its predatory nature alone, The Serial Killer Suite ensures ears and an appetite for imposing metal are aroused; add potent individual craft and an instinctively woven web of grooves and rhythmic threat and you have a release which stalks attention. The third album from UK metallers Temple Of Lies, it is a rapacious contagion of sound and intensity living up to its theme and untamed protagonist.

With its first pair of singles making persuasive hints of things to come, The Serial Killer Suite swiftly shows each were accurate clues to, if still slithers of, the adventurous character of the album. The successor to the well-received From Sand, it also sees the Temple Of Lies exploring heavier and darker corners of their sound and imagination; areas as dirty and bloodthirsty as they are groove nurtured infectious and hungrily energetic. Since emerging in 2010, the Leicester hailing outfit has shown an imposing growth in their sound, an evolution now having its head within their third full-length whilst still suggesting the exploration is far from over.

The Serial Killer Suite opens up with Epic Doom and instantly prowls ears with its groove lined swagger and growling riffs and bass line. Like a ringmaster vocalist Si Shaw steps into the middle, sowing the seeds to the psychotic devil in the album’s midst. Equally from the song’s initial breath, Jon Scranney’s guitar spins a web of enticing yet rapacious hooks and grooves, bait matched by the tenacious swings of drummer Alex Gamble and Jags’ similarly grouchy bass. It is an irresistible welcome into the waiting emotional carnage and ill-intent and swiftly backed by the just as gripping exploits of Broken Mind. Again band and sound court the senses with a threatening stealth, the bass pressing intimidatingly as Shaw’s gravelly tones join its trespass. As thrusting beats and harrying riffs add their lures, the song surrounds ears with hungry enterprise, the wiry tendrils of Scranney’s guitar rich spicing.

Illusion of Choice draws on the grungier side of the Temple of Lies sound, fusing it with their ever ferocious and enticing blend of metal. Instantly the track is on the boisterous balls of its feet, rhythms scything and riffs snarling as vocals and hooks collude in a virulent temptation with a touch of Disturbed meets Spineshank to its short but fiercely persuasive body before Modus Operandi lays down its individual creative intent. Often tempting like a fusion of Monster Magnet and Suicidal Tendencies, the track has ears and imagination hooked in no time, every twist a captivating moment, each turn a fresh treat merging the familiar with the unpredictable; an essence which applies to the whole of The Serial Killer Suite.

Latest single Skin is next, the track starting with a great bass grumble and proceeding to place layer upon layer of growling dexterity whilst creating another seriously catchy proposal. Shaw again prowls it all with vocal character and quality, every syllable spawned from the psychotic menace of the album’s heart. It is inescapably magnetic stuff pretty much matched in the irritable presence of I Cut You Bleed, though the song for personal tastes just misses finding the final persuasive ingredients of its predecessors. In saying that, there are also times when the song has ears and pleasure truly in the palms of its venomous hands.

Through the calmer though still instinctively volatile Sleep and the tenebrous tone and heart of its initial single, Dark Energy, the album has ears firmly gripped and enjoyment full. The first is a mellow proposal compared to those around it but deviously dark and tantalising with Scranney again showing his melodic craft and invention. Its successor also offers a less imposing proposition initially but there is a tempestuousness and emotional toxicity which brews and catches throughout the track’s poisonous embrace.

Both are tracks which also do not quite reach the heights of earlier roars yet leave the listener wanting for nothing before being eclipsed by the crabby rock ‘n’ roll of Teeth, another song with a great whiff of the crossover thrash of the previously mentioned Mike Muir led Californians in its snarl. Gamble’s beats leave the senses bruised from within the compelling encounter, the grievously addictive tone of Jags’ bass mutually greedy as Shaw and Scranney again enthral.

In turn Face of Grey hits the spot with its almost carnally toned intent and nature though it too is overshadowed by the following Symbiotic Parasite. As soon as church bells and senses intruding beats rise, there is an air of something special brewing, a suggestion only added to by the nagging riffs and controlled but fiery net of fleeting grooves. Subsequently things erupt in a voracious stomp, a swarm of infection and energy though still on a ferocity rein sparking a gripping tapestry of adventurous enterprise.

Nihilist Dreams brings things to a fine conclusion, the song an epilogue of emotional admission and creative resourcefulness which grows more tempestuous and imposing with every passing second. It is a great end to one of the year’s most enjoyable moments so far. Certainly being picky, it would have been interesting to see Temple Of Lies push the majorly adventurous and unpredictable moments of the album with an even bolder intent, to see it become truly distinctive, but there is nothing about The Serial Killer Suite that leaves disappointment or a lack of rich enjoyment. Temple of Lies is ready for global recognition; whether the world is ready for them time will tell.

The Serial Killer Suite is out now through Attic Records on iTunes and @ https://templeoflies.bandcamp.com/album/the-serial-killer-suite

http://templeoflies.co.uk/   https://www.facebook.com/templeoflies/   https://twitter.com/lies_of

Pete RingMaster 11/07/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Stormbringer – Blood And Rust

Scratching around for a powerhouse of rock ‘n’ roll to get down and dirty with? Then UK rockers Stormbringer and new album Blood And Rust should undoubtedly be your next port of call. The eleven track stomp is a thrillingly explosive and inventive blaze of heavy metal and riff fuelled rock, a creative ferocity weaving elements of enticing familiarity into broad roars fresh and distinct to the Northampton quintet. Most of all though, Blood And Rust is one thickly invigorating triumph from a band ready to stand alongside and indeed outshine the big boys.

The beginning of Stormbringer goes back to 2011 with members of Deadeye, Nekkrosis, and Viking Skull meeting for beers and music talk. Soon guitarists Ash Smith and Dom Wallace were recruiting drummer Jon Paul Quantrill and bassist Darren McCullagh to their new project, and from jamming and writing to recording had within a year created enough songs to fill an album. Now a vocalist was needed and in the winter of 2012 Mike Stockley joined the band, he soon laying down the vocals for debut album MMXIII, which was released the following July. The next years saw the band playing reputation building and acclaim earning shows which included appearances at Download and Bloodstock on its main stage. Due other commitments, Stockley had to eventually leave Stormbringer with his replacement subsequently coming in the shape of ex-Burn City Burn frontman Jimi Brown. Skipping forward over a haul of months, and we have the release of second album Blood and Rust, an encounter announcing Stormbringer as a valid protagonist to lead muscular British rock ‘n’ roll.

   Blood & Rust opens with its title track, a brief emotive instrumental hinting at the imagination with its winding melodies and eventually climatic air. Building tension and drama, the piece evolves into the tempest of No Redemption, a rampaging devilry of swinging grooves and thumping rhythms aligned to rousing riffery and the instantly impressing tones of Brown. It is an adrenaline fuelled incitement empowered further by the appetite coaxing craft of the guitars; they courted by the rousing quality of rhythms and vocals. Already neck muscles and eager attention are subservient to the release, Rise tightening the chains with its predatory yet inviting mix of tenacious riffing and a rugged confrontation of grouchy bass and sinew driven drums. A shadowy backing vocal adds to the lure of the song too, adding great shade to Brown’s delivery and the virulent contagion gripping ears from within the magnetic storm.

The following Bad Blood has a slightly more even temper to its character, though it does not skimp on creative aggression and muscle honed infection under the thick lure of Brown, he backed by great band shouts. It is fair to say that every song within Blood And Rust is an anthem in their own particular way, with this fourth track one of the most vocal and inescapable persuasions on body and voice of the listener before it makes way for the darker hues of Unto Me. The sound of McCullagh’s bass is almost bestial in tone, an early tempting still holding the keenest of attention as the guitars spin their web of imposing riffs and spicy grooves. Less forceful than its predecessors in urgency and energy, the song builds its own brand of intensity veined by rich melodic enterprise and imagination bringing more classic rock essences to light up its body.

Ashamed uncages a more boisterous and heavy intent next, its body still under a rein energy wise but making up for it with an invasive weight of sound lined with jagged scenery of riffs and beats. Brown again excels as impressively in voice as the music crowding his delivery, its ravenous intent and stalking gait a perpetual maze of invention and imaginative twists culminating in a superbly addictive finale. The track is outstanding, overshadowing its successor No Return, though it too is soon sparking full enjoyment and involvement with a somewhat familiar if indefinable design to its chorus and grooves, a success matched by Off the Edge straight after. Another track which prowls the senses, even with its elevated energy, it casts a maze of stirring endeavour and fiery catchiness that simply means involvement in its cause is instinctive. With a highly pleasing drift into a melodically haunting passage skirted by almost rabidly hued rhythms and riffs, the song enthrals and whips up the passions, a success even more intensive in Cross to Bear. The track is pure rock ‘n’ roll; from its first breath slavery of wiry grooves and punchy beats held in the grip of Brown’s vocals. Smith and Wallace transfix with their whirling tendrils of craft whilst Quantrill has senses reeling with his wicked strikes, every element of the song woven into a leviathan of an anthem infused with sonic seducing and melodic invention.

As if drawing on all the fascinating qualities within the songs before it, the seven minute croon of Voice of Demons is Stormbringer revealing all their variety of sound and resourceful imagination in one potent temptation. Catchy and reflective, melodically gentle and physically robust, the song is a glorious roar epitomising the band’s skill and invention whilst expanding the impact and depth of Blood And Rust yet again.

The song would have made the perfect high to end on but Stormbringer have one final treat in a cover of Talking Heads classic Psychokiller. A well covered song with let us be honest, only a few having been able to do it justice in their own style before, Stormbringer join that small number of real successes with a grouchier and far more fiery interpretation. They give it a full-on rock ‘n’ roll makeover without losing the core psychosis which has made the song a major inspiration, coming up with one mouth-watering version as a result.

Blood And Rust is Stormbringer at another new level of sound and presence which in turn ignites a new fire in the UK rock/metal scene for the year. It is a gem and really there is no excuse for any fan of either flavour not to go treat themselves with it.

Blood And Rust is out now digitally and on CD via Attic Records @ http://atticrecordsuk.bigcartel.com/product/stormbringer-album-cd-blood-rust

https://www.facebook.com/Stormbringerrock  https://twitter.com/UKstormbringer  http://www.bringthestorm.com

Pete RingMaster 28/10/2105

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

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