Reviews roundup – Emil Bulls vs. Gentle Giant vs. Travelin Jack

Reviews roundup – Emil Bulls vs. Gentle Giant vs. Travelin Jack

EMIL BULLS
Kill Your Demons
AFM

I first encountered Emil Bulls when their “Sacrifice To Venus” album came out They were long in the tooth then and they’re longer in the tooth now. But still bashing out alt-metal.

If anything they’ve actually got heavier over the years and when the title track blasts in, it certainly knocks you back on your toes. There is a lot of brutality running through these grooves and as I said last time they’re bordering on metalcore in places.

They do manage to dial it back in some places with ‘Euphoria’ as close as they get to the mainstream. Elsewhere, though, numbers like ‘The Anatomy Of Fear’ and ‘Gone Dark’ set about pummeling you into submission.

It’s certainly as good an album as This Sort Of Thing goes and fans of Bullet for My Valentine, Bring Me The Horizon and their ilk will take to this with abandon.

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GENTLE GIANT
Three Piece Suite
Alucard

Gentle Giant. eh. Even back in my misspent youth when I alternated between Motorhead and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, there was something of the odd about Gentle Giant.

The hippies of my acquaintance found them a bit on the weird side and this was coming from people who played Quintessence and Rameses albums for pleasure. Even nowadays GG aren’t really talked about much. But perhaps that’s about to change as they become the latest progsters to get the Steven Wilson treatment. Now I must admit I find the world of the audiophile a bit strange. I tried it for a while with some powerful F… O.. equipment but thirty years of sticking my right ear in Lemmys bass bins probably made it all a bit pointless. However, I still find it peculiar when my happiest memories of listening to music was vinyl on a crappy melamine Elizabethan record player my parents bought me from an auction for a fiver.

But the progsters seem to love it and I’m sure they’ll lap this up. Assuming they recover from the fact that most of the original Gentle Giant multi-tracks are lost in the mists of time hence why this is more of a best of with ‘Giant’, ‘Nothing At All’ and ‘Why Not’ from the first album “Giant”, ‘Pantagruel’s Nativity’, ‘The House, The Street, The Room’ from “Acquiring The Taste”, and ‘Schooldays’, ‘Peel the Paint’, ‘Mr. Class And Quality’ and ‘Three Friends’ from the latter album. There’s also a previously commercially unreleased song ‘Freedom’s Child’ from the first recording sessions.

The strange this is, it doesn’t sound that strange nowadays. Maybe we’ve all been exposed to so much music nowadays that nothing shocks or surprises. What you’ve got is some exemplary melodic prog rock mixed up with some hangovers from their psychedelic pop past. It’s quite delicious in places and anyone who’s missed out or deliberately avoided them should be giving this a listen. The fancy version comes with an array of audio formats I don’t even begin to understand but I’m sure those of you with a soundproofed listening room and too much time on your hands will love it. The rest of us can just enjoy the music.

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TRAVELIN JACK
Commencing Countdown
Steamhammer

To Germany now and the second album from Travelin Jack, one of those bands who really, really love the seventies.

Because it’s seventies rock that floats their boat. Of course they don’t want to be tarnished as old fashioned so the band say “there’s nothing retro about our material”. Well I say pish and pah! Basically they’re sort of working in the same field as Blues Pills but with more emphasis on the rock. And they make a mighty fine racket, there’s no denying as the delightfully named Alia Spaceface – Vocals/ Guitar, Flo The Fly – Guitar, Steve Burner – Bass and Montgomery Shell – Drums pop on their satin and face paint and set about taking on the world.

Thing is they haven’t written That Song yet. You know, the one that everyone remembers. For sure they’ve got some good tunes with ‘Cold Blood’, ‘Keep On Running’ and ‘Galactic Blue’ getting me all hot and bothered, but there is still some work to be done before they’re ready for the big breakthrough.

If they can hone their rock with a hint of blues sound and tighten up the songwriting then good things may come their way. But for the moment they’re just a wee bit short of being the killer band they could become.Countdown she sings the hell out of the songs

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