Belfast based electro-punk act Chalk laugh at the idea of less is more on their Crystalpunk album. Ross Cullen (vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, bass, guitars) and Benedict Goddard (guitar, synth) have hunted down every empty space in order to hammer down their message of handling crippling anxiety, pain, and pretending not to care.
Their wall-to-wall keyboards almost smother the guitar and the bass barely hangs on. By inserting techno and industrial elements they aim to entertain by hitting their audience over the head in an unrelenting way that will work well in a crowded club, but it falls it bit flat in the comfort on one's home. They will surely sell a lot of copies at the merch table, having banged the crowd into submission.
Singer-songwriter Drew Danburry tackles the thorny subject of failing to communicate, either on purpose or by chance on Boiled Peanuts, misheard, the new single he wrote for his band Icarus Phoenix. Starting of each verse with either E minor or A minor the sadness is almost palpable, although there also some anger bubbling under the surface.
He feels like he is running around in circles - "Every conversation becomes the same // Everything I knew has been replaced // So many tongues are choking me". A beautiful melody can be used as a vessel for something that really hurts. Maybe that is why he reached out to fellow songwriter Alex Coleman (Chasing Mice) to lend a hand with the backing vocals.
Dutch '80s inspired quintet Morgendust are back with a slightly rougher sound. Founding members Marco de Haan (vocals, guitars, drums) and Iwan Blokzijl (keyboards, production) and new guys Goemel van Tienhoven (guitars) and René Westra (bass) plan to release three EPs this year - the first one, Monumentsof Men, drops on March 27 - and if the new single King of Lonely Souls is an indication of what this new line-up is capable of, they have a bright future laying ahead of them. The guitars have some nice call-and-response going and the vocals have reached a new level of urgency with this dark tale of a fight with an unnamed nasty entity.
Sugar Horse know how to get mad at injustice. The progressive noise metal band goes all out on their new single Ex-Human Shield, making tough industrial music sound tame in comparison. They could have written a strong-worded letter to the editor of a newspaper, but instead of a pen they picked up an axe to cut down racism and rampant capitilamism, both of which don't give a fuck about injustice and corruption. Like with their previous single Secret Speech they used banned Soviet animation for the video.
