EP Review - GlassBullet - Misguided

There's no feeling better, than the first time you listen to a band you've been meaning to listen to for a while, and being completely blown away by what you hear.

This is the feeling I had when I had a first listen to 'Misguided' the debut EP from Birmingham hard rockers GlassBullett. I've been in contact with the bands bassist, Tom, on numerous occasions about doing a review, and getting them booked for a gig, but having the memory of a goldfish, it completely slipped my mind. That was until Tom sent me a gentle reminder last week, lol. So I downloaded 'Misguided' and I have to say, it is an absolute belter!!

What you have is a collection of 4 songs that show how talented these guys are, and effortless they make it seem. The EP kicks off with the title track 'Misguided', a heady mix of pounding drums, a kickass bassline, and some truly dirty guitar riffs, then there's 'the' solo!! I'll say no more about it, you simply have to listen to it yourself!! Following on in the same vein, you have 'Mind Reader', a frantic rollercoaster of a track that gives Lewis Ward an even bigger playground for his superb vocals. 'Falling Down' has a slightly darker feel to the track, although the energy and power are still there in spades!! You can certainly hear influence from the likes of AC/DC, Soundgarden, and AlterBridge throughout the EP, the latter 2, non more so in final track Rise of The River, a much slower track than the previous 3, but by no means a ballad, lol. The thumping drums, riffs of epic proportions and vocal power all still present.

A truly cracking debut from the lads from Cannock, and it's safe to say, in my opinion, these guys are gonna be a massive success, certainly on the local rock/metal scene.

GlassBullet are:
Lewis Ward - Vocals/Guitar
Ben Evans - Lead Guitar
Bradley Hopkins - Drums
Tom Bushell - Bass Guitar

Full Tracklist for 'Misguided'
1 Misguided
2 Mind Reader
3 Falling Down
4 Rise of The River

You can download 'Misguided' from GlassBullet's Bancamp page, here

EP Review - Boundary - If Looks Could Kill

Simply listening to 'If Looks Could Kill' from Coventry pop punks, Boundary doesn't really do it the justice it deserves. To get the full effect, you have to see these guys live on stage. Luckily, this can be done, next Tuesday, (June 4th) at The Roadhouse in Brum. Their live presence gives their catchy riffs and cool guitar solo's a whole new dimension. That being said, 'If Looks Could Kill' is a great EP from JJ (lead vocals), and the guys.

The EP starts with the title track 'If Looks Could Kill', and it's a cracker. It's one of those annoyingly infectious tracks you can't help but bounce your head and tap your feet to. In fact, If I wasn't writing this while listening to it, I'd be bouncing around my living room, lol!! It takes influence from the likes of Blink 182 and other American punk bands, but thankfully without the american accent, (nothing wrong with the accent, but the English accent gives it that something else). JJ gives a great vocal performance, and there's some great riffs and guitars throughout. 'Redemption' starts life with a nice piano solo, but before too long it's into the crashing drums, catchy riffs, and punky vocals. There's a neat little bridge midway through with just JJ and piano which then returns back to it's punky home with a cool guitar solo from lead guitarist Nick. There's a great feel to 'Beautiful Disaster', you can't help but feel that on home turf, with a room full of fans, it woulde just be a room full of bouncing bodies throughout. Another great guitar solo mid way through, which seperates Boundary from a lot of other pop punk bands and it's a great extra string to their bow.

It's a great EP, and a very polished 2nd piece of work from a band who have been together a litle over 18 months. If you get a chance to see these guys do their thing live, take that opportunity!!
You can download 'If Looks Could Kill' for free from this link http://boundaryuk.bandcamp.com/album/if-looks-could-kill, where you can also download their self titled debut EP.

Boundary are:
Joe Jelley (JJ) - Vocals & Guitar
Nick Atkins - Lead Guitar
Joe Orton - Drums & Percussion
Luke Gillborn - Bass Guitar

Tracklist for 'If Looks Could Kill'
1 If Looks Could Kill
2 Redemption
3 Beautiful Disaster

EP Review - Defy All Reason - Every Second Counts

 Hello!!

I love reviewing a good EP! And this offering from Welsh rockers, Defy All Reason, more than capably covers that bracket. The Wrexham boys played for BritRockArmy at the beginning of 2013, and they went down a storm!! These fab guys from Wales are the kind of band that will travel literally anywhere just to get on a stage and play to a bunch of music lovers. They draw there influences from the likes of Black Stone Cherry, Nickelback and Shinedown to name a few, and you can certainly hear these influences and more throughout their newly released debut EP. Here are my thoughts :)

The EP kicks of with the insanely catchy 'Shake It'. A great riff to start, with a fab, gritty vocal from Gav Jones. Pounding drums, great guitar, with some glimpses of great solo's, it's an awesome way to start an EP. 'Behind Those Eyes', is a complete change of pace, and mood. It's a beautifully crafted ballad, A La Bon Jovi, etc. Gav once again shows a raw, gritty quality to the vocal, but also the underlying power of his voice. The track is also home to an amazing guitar solo, and a short but great power surge towards the end, it's a great continuation, and leads brilliantly into the 3rd track, another brillaint power ballad! 'Coming Home' has hints of both the power ballads of Bon Jovi and a hint of G'NR (November Rain). Again, it's a great showcase for the tonal range, and power of Gav's voice, quite possibly the pick of the 4 tracks on the EP, with a really nice string arrangement running in the background.

 The power and edge returns with the final offering, 'Blame it on The Luck and Rock N Roll'. Some dirty riffs, great solo work from the guitars, and another powerhouse vocal from Mr Jones, bring this brilliant EP to an unfortuantely to early close.

There's a couple of things I'm looking forward to, now I've had the chance to listen to 'Every second Counts'. Firstly, getting these guys back on a stage in Birmingham with BritRockArmy, and, secondly, I'm really looking forward to what the future holds for these great guys from Wrexham.

Defy All Reason are:-
Gavin 'Gav' Jones - Lead vox, Guitar
Darren 'Daz' Jones - Backing vox, Guitar
Lee 'Skeggsy' Shenton - Bass guitar
James 'Rad' Radhi - Drums

Full Track list for 'Every Second Counts'
1 Shake it
2 Behind Those Eyes
3 Coming Home
4 Blame it on The Luck and Rock N Roll

Return of the Q&A - Eddie Brandoff/Razonator

Eddie Brandoff is no stranger to this business we call music. He's been playing guitar and performing since the age of 13. In his previous musical storybook, he's played in front of 50,000 people and opened for the mighty ZZ top. He formed Razonator in 2011, and released their first single 'Broken Bones' in September of that year. After just over a year, and changes to the line up, Razonator are back with  a cool new track 'Prayer of Road', which I will also be reviewing very soon. Here though, Eddie answers some questions for BritRockArmy, his fans, and the universe!!

Introduce is to the members of the band.

Eddie Brandoff  - Resonator/slide, vocals

Julio Mendoza - Guitar, backing vocals  

Felipe Ribeiro - Drums 

Pedro Victor  - Bass. 

What musical genre would you say you fit best into?

I like to call it "Southern Metal" because it's a mix of Southern Rock and Heavy Metal, theres a lot of Delta Blues stuff too in my sound but i think the blues is already in to the southern rock anyway. 

Who are your musical influences?

It goes from 1930 untill nowadays,  i must say its Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Derek Trucks, Eric Sardinas and Doyle Bramhall II, Zakk Wylde, just to mention a few.

How did you get together as a band?

I started the band and called friends of mine musicians who i knew had the same musical influences and tastes that i do.

If you could collaborate with anyone past or present, who would it be?

Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Would you rather play arena gigs or small intimate gigs?

I already did and still do both but honestly i prefer small places.

If you could play any venue in the world, where would it be?

Royal Albert Hall in London.

Where do you see the band in 5 years? 

Somewhere in Europe or US doing lots of gigs.

Signed or independent?

Signed, i hope.

What's been your favourite gig you've played, and why?

I think it was the Opening Acts for ZZ Top, well, because its ZZ Top, u know?

Where's the worst venue you've played?

Lots of places in Brazil!

If you could cover any song what would it be and why?

Vooddo Child by Jimi Hendrix, because he was a genius.

What song would you like to be played at your funeral?

Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

What song would you have as your first dance at your wedding?

Love Struck Baby by Stevie Ray Vaughan.

A massive thanks to Eddie for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer the questions, and also a massive thanks to Pat Phillips-Hague for setting up the Q&A and also the review.

Review - The Sonic Revolvers - Plastic Rock - Video Review

So, this is a first for me, a video review!! I was contacted by the bands frontman, Darrell Tinsley, a couple of weeks ago and asked if I'd ever done a video review. I said no, but there's a first time for everything!!

So here we go.

Plastic Rock is the new single from Runcorn based rock 4 piece, The Sonic Revolvers. It's their first release since joining forces with BritRockArmy buddies, Freaky Pug PR and Records, and is taken from their 'Suns of Mercury' EP.

The video portrays the story of a young guy who obviously has delusions of grandeur, (surely not in this industry!). He's got it all going for him, the flash car, seems to attract the ladies, and plays guitar in a band. But everything is not as it seems. Is our protagonist all he appears to be? Is everything really going as well as it would appear? Well you're just gonna have to watch the video to find out!! (Did you honestly think I was gonna give it all away, lol!!)

The truth is, this is a great little video, for a cracking track, from one very hard working BritRockArmy band! Obviously filmed on a limited budget, it gets it's point across in both a clever and entertaining way. The extras in the gig scene towards the end were recruited via social media, which is a great way to get the fans involved! It definately tells it like it is. The world is full of people driven by their ego. People who think they automatically deserve success because they think they have a God given talent!

Sad but True!

I really like the video, and challenge you not to like it too!!

P.S watch out for the dodgy looking cleaner towards the end!

Now watch the video below!!

Lightfire - Run Aground - EP Review

It's been an exciting start to 2013 for the boys from Birmingham! I've had the privelege of having Lightfire play at a few BritRockArmy events, and they're one of the nicest bunch of lads you could meet!! Sadly, I missed the launch of their debut EP, Run Aground in February, but I managed to pick up a copy when they played a few weeks later.

Run Aground, is a 3 track EP that does a great job of showcasing the bands musical style and talent, and also of showing of Scott's fantastic vocals, gritty in parts, and sheer metal-like screaming in others. Ignorance kicks things off with a great riff followed shortly in by a pounding drum track. The power and pace are relentless, and the vocals strong throughout, including a couple of extremely painful sounding screams from Scott, it's a great way to kick things off!! Next up is The Sustem, another frantic paced piece, led by thumping drums and gritty guitar work and another fine vocal. The 3rd and final offering takes it down a notch, much slower but just as powerful and emotive.

It's clear to see from this debut that Lightfire have talent in spades, and that even more evident in their live sets. With great energy added to the talent, the guys never give any less than 110%. Even with a sore throat at their last BritRockArmy gig, Scott's vocal was top drawer.

If you like your rock with that little metal edge, these are the guys for you. Download the EP from iTunes, or pick one up when you go and see these guys live. Either way, you have to do both!!

Resin - Embrace The Fall - Album Review

There can be no denying the fact that the UK has some amazing unsigned/independent rock bands floating around and Resin, from Leicester, are no exception to this! They're a class act, professional in every way, when they play live, they are awesome! I had the privelege of having them play one if my events at the beginning of the year, and was left speechless by the quality of their performance. They performed a lot of material from their debut album Embrace The Fall that night and oh my god what a debut it is!!

It's 9 tracks, (including an acoustic version of Clouds), of moody, emotional, grunge based rock with some awesome guitar work, some amazing riffs and solos, and an amazing vocal performance throughout from front man James Botha. There's a real Pearl Jam/Nirvana vibe to the album, never more so than in Clouds. From the opening of first track Entropy, the listener is drawn in, it starts out as a mellow guitar intro, but as soon as the drums and vocals kick in, it is transformed into a powerful grunge fuelled monster of a track. There is not one track that isn't worthy of being released as a single, an acoustic version of Fallen features on the BritRockArmy/Freaky Pug Records collaboration 'The Uprising', Beskadig (which translates from Afrikaans to Damaged), is an awesome, powerful track, and is sung in Afrikaans throughout, but the sense of emotion is still very evident. Stand out track for me is Poison. There's just something about it! Again, it starts out similar to Entropy in so much as it begins as a much softer, mellow track, but when the chorus kicks in, it's an all out rockfest!!

08 Poison album version by resin

You can listen to previews of the tracks at the bands website, www.resinband.com. The album is also available on CD from the same place. You can download the album from all the usual electronic music vendors :)

Resin are:-
James Botha - Vocals
Mark Roseby - Guitar and vocals
Simon Yarwood - Guitar
David Seville - Bass
Mark Abbott - Drums