Black Market Serotonin - Dead by Five O Clock EP

Black Market Serotonin are a hard/prog rock band based out of Manchester. Their sound is a brash mixture of soaring, accented vocals, thrashing drums and guitar solos. Or at least that is what their debut EP, Dead By Five O Clock, would have you believe. Each track is huge sounding, rock odyssey and the EP itself times out at just about thirty minutes, which is impressive for a five-track CD. It’s the first release by the band so let’s see how their first foray into recorded material goes…

The EPs title track opens the CD, and as one might expect, it’s rich with heavy drums and screeching guitars, while vocalist Andrew Pimblott wails over the track. The song has a serious epic feel to it, the mix of the acoustic opening section and the synths adding substantially to the big sound the band have going on. One thing I will say it that the song has a few too many parts and if the band could have funnelled down some of the material, maybe cut a few guitar solo breaks (of which there are many), they could have come out with a damn fine track. I mean, it’s all in there, and the chorus is a mighty one, although it does go on a bit. That said, ‘Dead By Five O Clock’ is probably the best song on the EP and it’s rightly to the fore.

The big long instrumental parts show up again in the next track, ‘The End of History’. Another ‘big’ song, all the constituent parts of a high energy/high emotion track are there, but the sound and structure just needs to be refined. Same goes for the rest of the EP. ‘Revelation One’ has a kicking chorus, and a Journey-esque breakdown; ‘Clarity’, though perhaps the weakest song melodically, still has a charm; as does the piano infused closer ‘Hours’. Yet all three just drag on too long. By the end the listener’s ears are awash with cymbals, distorted guitars and unintelligible vocals, so much awash that the gems behind the lengthy songs are almost forgotten.

I know that this band are just starting out, and maybe I’m being over critical, and I’ll always prefer snappier, to-the-point songs to 6 minute odysseys. But without a doubt, the EP shows a band that have a good grasp of melody and a strong songwriting sense. As is the way with bands in their early days, it’ll take a while for them to find their footing but, they have potential. If ever the phrase ‘watch this space’ applied, it applies here.

Drop-D Rating: 6/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 13th June, 2011

Bl_ck R_b_ts - Farewell Black Robots

It’s a testament to the nature of receiving new music these days that the first thing I did when I went to review Bl_ck R_b_ts’ album – Farewell Black Robots was to Google their name.

I was greeted with tale after tale concerning the band’s recent history, and in particular, the trouble concerning their name. To cut a long story short, Bl_ck R_b_ts dropped the ‘a’s and added the underscores to prevent confusion with the Californian-based ‘Black Robot’ and can now add their name to the long list of bands who’ve had similar issues. Their debut, Farewell Black Robots, comes at the end of this ordeal, and in my opinion they couldn’t have put it behind them in a better way. style="font-family:georgia;">

The album opens dark, with I am are Robot, a deafening track that seeps angst and anger. The following track, Times Changing, furthers the darker side of the album. Deen O Saurus sings, as the title suggests, “Times are changing…I can’t see you, the way I did before”. However, within the darkness lies light. The album moves between the two shades while remaining in the same trodden heavy guitar and drums combo. Tracks like Stand, Easier, and the album closer Different in particular, are truly uplifting. The enchanting melodies behind the brash instrumentation reminds you of My Bloody Valentine and The Deftones at times.

If the I was to criticise the album, there are a few timing issues here and there so the tracks aren’t as tight as they could be. Also, the two instrumental tracks, Dead Fox and Virgin, tend to break up the album’s flow a bit. Not that I’m against instrumentals, but the track don’t go far enough in the instrumental vein and if you include tracks like that, they have to hold your attention. That said, I really enjoyed Farewell Black Robots. Its an incredibly strong record and I’m hoping that their recent troubles can be put behind them so they can make more great music like this.

Drop-D Rating: 8/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, March 25th, 2011