Diamond Days – People Change

In the second half of 2015, UK alternative pop/rock band Diamond Days grabbed attention with the release of two singles in quick succession; songs which built upon the potential and success of their previous EP. Now they nudge the bar of their melody rich sound again with new track People Change; a single confirming why good, praise loaded things are constantly being said about the Liverpool band.

Formed in 2014, the quartet soon sparked keen online attention with the release of debut single Start It From The End, its release soon followed by over 60,000 views on YouTube and the luring of over 30,000 followers across social media since. Drawing on inspirations ranging from Fall Out Boy, You Me At Six, and Panic! At The Disco to Foo Fighters, Young Guns, and Lower Than Atlantis, the band’s sound has persistently evolved with each release too starting with their impressing debut EP, We’ve Come A Long Way. Live the band has equally earned a potent reputation, sharing stages with bands such as The Blackout, William Control, Metro Station, Motion City Soundtrack, Fearless Vampire Killers, and Verses along the way. Both the Love Struck Kids and I Rewind singles of last year hinted at further growth in songwriting and sound which now People Change backs with infectious charm.

An opening melodic sigh brings in the punchy beats of Mark Highdale and the enticing lures of guitarists Tom Shepherd and Alex Fearn first, the latter equally as swift in offering his strong voice and expression to the emerging song. It is a rousing start which never explodes but continues to fuel the growing harmonic and melodic roar. Darker textures are provided by the bass of Tom Jack Jackson, giving a great temper to the vibrancy which soaks the song from enterprise and craft through to the potent tones of Fearn.

There is also a great hint of new unpredictability emerging in the band’s songwriting too; a sudden twist into a calmer emotive climate without real warning one great moment in the increasingly magnetic encounter.

With a great video to accompany it, People Change looks like being the start of another strong year for Diamond Days and an enjoyable one for us.

People Change is out now.

http://www.diamonddaysmusic.com   https://www.facebook.com/DiamondDaysUK   https://www.twitter.com/diamonddaysuk

Pete RingMaster 02/03/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

For more exploration of the independent and promotional services check out http://www.zykotika.com/

The Decline – Resister

Third album in and Australian skate punksters, The Decline, continue to offer contagion fuelled stomps that simply rouse up the spirit. Resister is packed to the rafters with imagination crafted and wholly magnetic propositions, tracks which only want to offer a good time whilst uncaging a lyrical substance easy to get involved with. Pop/skate punk boundaries are certainly not worried too forcibly by the thirteen track adventure but any resistance to its unstoppable virulence is swiftly dead in its invigorating waters.

Formed in 2006, the Perth hailing quartet made its first strong attention grabbing mark with debut album I’m Not Gonna Lie to You in 2010, an encounter straight away pushing the band towards international awareness. Its acclaimed successor of the following year, Are You Going To Eat That, helped spark the opportunity for The Decline to undertake a headlining tour of Europe as well as a Japanese tour with Israeli pop-punkers Useless ID and So-Cal 90’s super band Implants. Across the years the band has continued to share stages with the likes of Descendents, Unwritten Law, Frenzal Rhomb, Propagandhi, Bodyjar, Bouncing Souls, Anti-Flag, Lagwagon, No Use For A Name, No Fun At All, Guttermouth, and The Flatliners, they amongst a great many others. 2014 saw the release of the crowd-funded Can I Borrow A Feeling EP as well as another hectic tour schedule whilst after a line-up shuffle earlier this year, The Decline set about recording Resister, its immediate unveiling coming just before the band hits the festivals Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia, Munich’s Free and Easy Fest, and Rebellion, the latter one part of a UK tour running through August. With further global shows in the offing too, Resister provides the most potent incentive to check the band out and make this a summer of insatiable romping.

The release opens with New Again, a short, punchy encounter which quickly sets the creative scene for the album. Jangling melodies flirt with muscular rhythms whilst the potent vocals of guitarists Pat Decline and Ben Elliott unite and entwine across the tenacious start to the album. There are no surprises but plenty of fiercely flavoursome sounds setting up ears and appetite for the following Giving Up is a Gateway Drug, the first single from Resister. With the thumping beats of Harry steering the song into view, his drums a blur of activity, the song twists and turns with emotion and energy. Every second is a tempestuous and easy persuasion for ears, vocals again slightly outshining the sounds, but all aspects crafted with inventive and unpredictable elements.

As strong as its start is, Resister kicks up another gear or two from I Don’t Believe onwards. Featuring guest vocals from Cameron Baines of Bodyjar, the third track boldly enters on rolling anthemic rhythms, they in turn laced with sonic spicing from the guitars before it all colludes in one seriously infectious incitement. A whiff of older schooled punk embraces poppier exploits resulting in a rigorous and pungent anthem swinging punches at the music scene and stirring up new hunger for the release. It is an appetite fed just as healthily and fully by Almost Never Met You, a song littered with tangy riffs, sparkling hooks, and the ever impressing vocal combination. The throaty bass twang of Ray Ray as good as steals the show but is matched all the way by the spices just mentioned and a Green Day meets Bodyjar essence coating the excellent encounter.

Both The Blurst of Times and You Call This A Holiday? keep the album’s new levels roaring in ears and thoughts, the first with fiery atmosphere and attitude to body and voice, and the second through its seamless and magnetic passage from a riveting acoustic/vocal lure into another throttle to the floor ball of creative and physical energy. Each, but especially the former, has an air of The Living End to the full-blooded tempting whilst Camberwell Street straight after, explodes with a richer hardcore but melody drenched escapade. It does not quite live up to its predecessors, but again with skilled endeavour and ideation spicing every aspect the song, hits the spot nicely before making way for the similarly successful Broken Bones.

The thickly pleasing Wrecking Ball fires up the passions, even with its opening barbershop skit. Subsequently into an unbridled bellow of aggression and explosive energy, the track is an easy persuasion of rippling rhythms, inescapable hooks, and more potent vocal combinations. But as good as it is though, it gets over shadowed by the outstanding You’re Not The Waitress, another pop infused punk tempest which is pure contagion.

The thirty second Little Voices is more of the same, revealing a similarity to the previous track and others around it without losing its individual potency during a short tenure of ears. It stirs the emotions nicely which Underworld Tour takes on a thrilling ride straight after with its NOFX/Motion City Soundtrack/ Set Your Goals like fusion of sound and imagination. Again rousing is the best word to describe its heavy satisfaction breeding character as it leaves the listener on a high ready for the closing catchy onslaught of Start Again. The song sums up The Decline sound perfectly, melodically hot, energetically sizzling, and creatively lively in a gripping finish to a fine album.

As suggested earlier, major surprises come in rare batches across Resister yet few moments truly feed expectations and every song is a galvanic exploit hard to turn away from. That certainly works for us!

Resister is available now through Pee Records (Australia) @ https://peerecords.bandcamp.com/album/resister, Bird Attack (USA) @ https://birdattackrecords.bandcamp.com/album/resister-4, and Cargo Records (Europe/UK).

The Decline UK tour dates:

Sat 8th – The Maze, Nottingham

Sun 9th – Rebellion Festival, Blackpool

Mon 10th – New Cross Inn, London w/ MDC (Millions of Dead Cops)

Wed 12th – Brudenell, Leeds w/ MDC (Millions of Dead Cops)

Thu 13th – The Hope And Ruin, Brighton

Fri 14th – Owl Sanctuary, Norwich w/War On Women

Sat 15th – Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow

Sun 16th – Exchange, Bristol w/ Teenage Bottlerocket

Mon 17th – The Fighting Cocks, Kingston

https://www.facebook.com/TheDeclineMusic   http://www.thedeclinemusic.com/

RingMaster 03/08/2015

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard on Reputation Radio @ http://www.reputationradio.net

 

Archimedes, Watch Out! – In Context

Archimedes, Watch Out! the pop punk sextet from Lubbock in Texas certainly have a fun and appealing name to grab attention but do they have the sounds to back it up was the question going into their debut album In Context. Their previous A Face for Radio EP of two years ago certainly suggested this was a band on the march and it has to be said the new album has more than fulfilled that early promise. It comprises of twelve vibrant and energetic slices of melodic punk brought with great enterprise and craft, each song a well thought out and presented riot of rock n roll.

Drawing influences from the likes of Motion City Soundtrack and New Found Glory, those flavours easily apparent throughout the release, the band know how to write captivating songs with structures and imagination to intrigue and satisfy. It can be argued whether the band have yet found a unique identity for themselves yet as the songs really do not offer anything openly brand new to devour but with their obvious great creativity and accomplished ability the band has created an easy and deeply agreeable companion.

Released via Search and Rescue Records, In Context lights up the air straight away with What About Smee?, the song a flaming surge of sharp guitars, great vocal harmonies, and abrasive energy. Offering pop punk with a snarl and addictive hooks, the track is an instant brawl to engage in with no hidden aspects or testing elements. It is an easy start which sets things up nicely without igniting any great fires but instead tones the senses for what is to follow.

From the song alone one can only be impressed with the vocals, Dalton Claybrook a frontman with a clear and powerful delivery backed up excellently by the rest of the band at times, making for a perpetual anthemic feel on the song and album overall. The following Inspired By True Events has a more even paced attack with finely sculptured melodies and reflective emotion. The bass of Evan Wallis is ear catching, its gnarly breath a great presence whilst the female vocals which join the fray midway are a great piece of enterprise.

With a twin guitar attack alongside keys from the combined might of Austin Light, Tommy Loewen, and Mason Parkman driving each song, as on the likes of Breakable Things and Bad Tattoos, credit must go to the production which allows they and the aforementioned bass of Wallis and drum skills of Jeff Stringer a real clarify to their presence within the bustling furnace of sound. The first of these songs has a definite Fall Out Boy feel whilst the second reminds of bands such as The Wonder Years and Motion City Soundtrack, both offering great aural diversions and unexpected moments at times to eagerly applaud.

At times songs if given less than full focus carry a similarity across their feast of sound though that core noise is unstoppably infectious, a brew to greedily enjoy. With strong attention the album unveils great and compulsive ideas which as well as giving strong gratification suggests even further promise ahead. Songs such as Everybody’s Russian, Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal!, the Green Dayesque Holding Out For Hours, and closing song Sullivan leap at the ear more readily than others with the vocals of Claybrook lighting beacons to each individual charge, to ensure the release captivates from beginning to end.

In Context is a catchy and openly pleasing release to spend plenty of energetic time with. Archimedes, Watch Out! is a band still evolving one feels which on the evidence of this their first album makes the future of the band rather exciting.

https://www.facebook.com/archimedestx

RingMaster 05/10/2012

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

The best and easiest way to get your music on iTunes, Amazon and lots more. Click below for details.

Man Of The Hour: A Modern Day Epic

Pop punk comes in many shapes and sizes with quite often obvious style over substance the residing factor. From South Wales Man of the Hour bring forth both. Their songs are solid and powerful slices of pop punk with a thought and considered creativity to them but delivered with a flair and absorbing ability that grabs the ear greedily. Their brand new single A Modern Day Epic perfectly demonstrates this  and in company with their previous releases sets the band as ones to take the genre into revitalised and diverse areas.

Man of the Hour calls themselves a ‘pop-punk band with teeth’ and certainly this single alone shows they have an edge that though it may not take a chunk out of the ear will gnaw on it with a sure eagerness. The band formed in 2008 when vocalist and guitarist Richard Meyrick linked with former keyboard player Matthew Morris to produce  synth led pop punk music with a difference. The band has seen many changes to its line-up over the past years  but it did not stop songs like Shatter and Adam, You’ve Got Lemonade as well as debut EP I Can’t Believe Man Of The Hour Is A Pop-Punk Band!? , and their impressive live shows leaving a distinct mark on an ever increasing fan base and media.

A Modern Day Epic from the off enters the ear with blooming melodies and firm riffs. Incisive and eloquent the guitar of Meyrick looks at one eye to mesmerised eye whilst the bass of Gareth Burrough rumbles behind. With strong but unobtrusive drums from Josh Delaney framing the song the vocals of Meyrick share the emotive heart of the song to great effect. Without attaching itself with an obvious addictive hook or recognisable melody the song is infectious without over playing. The guitar solo within also lights up the ear and without ripping up boundaries the song is very satisfying. Then it takes a turn on us to really leave the senses grinning. The song takes a breath, almost suggesting it has shared its last note but it is merely the start of an impression flourish and climax to the song. A lone guitar repeats the previous riff to expand and harmonise whilst the bass stalks alongside but it is when the flowing synths regale the track with their beauty that a strong song turns into a deeply impressive one. The extra added emotive piano completes the wonderful sound as the song finally waves its departure in style.

A Modern Day Epic is a fine and engaging song which excels the further it shares its unique presence and if there was one complaint it is that the heart caressing synths and intent it ends on do not feature earlier as then we might be talking about a classic.

For all already enamoured with the likes of Blink 182, New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack, and Set Your Goals, which the band itself openly is, Man of the Hour take you from that base into further  stimulating grounds. Pop punk has a new spark ready to ignite in the shape of Man of the Hour.

https://www.facebook.com/manofthehourband

RingMaster Review 04/03/2012