This is proper punk rock, with thrashed guitars and vocals two clicks away from laryngitis, yet this band has always married sweet melodies to its hard-core heart.
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Lost Songs
Century Media, £10.99
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The themes of the record echo the war worries of 2004’s Worlds Apart, but with more focus on current concerns such as the fighting in Syria.
Musically it deploys the band’s weapon of choice – the rolling wall of sound production which is like being flattened by a sonic steamroller.
However, the contrast between the voices of Conrad Keely and Jason Reece, alternating as lead singers, prevents things from sounding samey.
The first track, Open Doors, is intense and claustrophobic, threatening to squeeze the last breath out of the listener, while Time And Again ends with a weirdly fulfilling synthesised squelch. The band make a mockery of the Spinal Tap concept of amplifiers with controls that go up to 11, with the ferocious Up To Infinity epitomising the uncompromising intensity of the whole album. Flower Card Games leaves keyboard vapour trails in its incendiary wake, before pivotal percussion sweeps us off in the direction of A Place To Rest.
Glorious in its garishness, Lost Songs also offers a comforting attention to rock detail.
Colin Somerville
Download this: Bright Young Things