THE DOLLYROTS
Daydream Explosion
(Wicked Cool)KKKK K
FOR FANS OF: Gr een Day,
Bowling For Soup, Ramones
■ Ask any musician what it’s like to be in a band
and they’ll often say it’s just like being married.
For The Dollyrots’ Kelly Ogden and Luis Cabezas,
however, this is literally exactly what it’s like, with
the matrimonial team having been doling out their
catchy pop-punk for the best part of two decades
now. Along the way, they’ve earned punk stars by
releasing albums on Lookout! Records offshoot
Panic Button, Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records and
‘Little Steven’ Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool label. With
cred in place, Daydream Explosion is very much
business as usual. In Your Face could soundtrack a
high school coming-of-age, while I Know How To
Party sounds like something Andrew W.K. would
shotgun an energy drink to while letting off an
entire crateful of fireworks in his garage. It’s a big
old dose of summery, good-time bubblegum rock
which only needs the most cursory of listens for its
choruses to lodge themselves firmly in your brain
and stay there. SIMON YOUNG
KID KAPICHI
SUGAR TAX
(SELF-RELEASED)KKKKK
FOR FANS OF: Frank Carter
And The Rattlesnakes, Fizzy Blood, Slaves
■ Given that Hastings quartet Kid Kapichi have
received the thumbs-up from Frank Carter, it’s
no surprise to learn that, like the former Gallows
frontman, they have plenty of attitude. The five
songs that make up this EP are all boisterous
rock‘n’roll numbers that would slot easily enough
into The Rattlesnakes’ back catalogue, and
although the music isn’t treading any new ground,
the charisma and enthusiasm the band possess
should allow them to stand out from the crowd.
The posturing lyrics of opening track Glitterati
make for an undeniable earworm, while the bass-
driven, dual-vocal assault of Revolver impresses,
but it’s the riffy social commentary of recent
single 2019 that works best, its creators lamenting
how modern TV is ‘Making porn out of poverty’.
Kid Kapichi might be unpolished, but they have
promise, and while Sugar Tax doesn’t quite have
the sweet taste of runaway success, it’s by no
means a sickly effort. JAKE RICHARDSONTHROUGH FIRE
ALL ANIMAL
(SUMERIAN)KKKKK
FOR FANS OF: Staind,
Seether, Papa Roach
■ Some bands are irredeemably awful. Some
are so bad they’re good. Through Fire commit
a worse sin than either subset: merely, their
second album is just unnoticeable; a perfectly
functional, well-constructed slab of modern hard
rock. All the elements are exactly where you’d
expect to find them if you were putting a band
of this ilk together from a manual. The riffs hit
moderately hard and the hooks sound catchy
enough – at least, until they’re gone and you try
to recall them. In short, it’s dull, harking back
to a post-grunge era when middle-of-the-road
mediocrity could be rewarded with multi-platinum
wall hangings. Stylistically, they mix in a bit of
electronic augmentation, but where they want
to sound like Nine Inch Nails they only manage
about three centimetres. Listen To Your Heart is a
full-on power ballad, but most of the songs here
straddle a centre line with mid-paced and highly
forgettable semi-slammers. PAUL TRAVERSREAL AUTHORITY
TRUE MOTION
(Chapter One)KKKKK
FOR FANS OF: Stray From
The Path, Cancer Bats, Sick Of It All
■ Real Authority are made up of ex-members
of Weathered Hands, the rather good Hereford
quintet who called it quits four years ago. But this
isn’t a simple respray job; these five songs are
far removed from that band’s overwrought post-
hardcore. It’s a slick swirl of punk, groovy riffs, and
there’s even a nod to nu-metal on opening track
The Energy. Over the meatiest riff Wes Borland
never wrote, vocalist John James Davies half-
raps, half-yells, ‘I feel so let down by everybody’,
but it’s not a pity anthem, rather a pull-yourself-
up-by-your-bootstraps call to arms. They clearly
understand the power of simplicity, too, and their
unfussy riffs are delivered with all the force of a
police battering ram. The EP’s highlight, however,
can be found in Depression Issues, which ebbs and
flows with a heavy, southern groove, all shrouded
in a Seattle gloom. Clocking in at just over 12
minutes, True Motion is far too short, but all signs
point to an exciting future. SIMON YOUNGAURAS
BINARY GARDEN
(eOne)KKKKK
FOR FANS OF: Veil Of Maya,
Of Mice & Men, Northlane
■ The format is established right away: in opener
Momenta, riffs and rhythms ripple and flex like
a writhing ball of snakes, muscular but complex.
Then, after the expected glut of raucous vocals, a
melodic, sung hook emerges, taking the song into
a different dimension. So far, so very impressive.
The only thing that knocks polyrhythmic prog-
metallers Auras off this peak is the Canadian
band’s determination to repeat the same format- which they do again and again. It quickly
becomes a well-drilled but monotonous battery.
The persistently thunderous Pseudo Intellect
breaks the cycle briefly, as does the more emotive
Essence, but these are anomalies. While the
ear-boggling talents of this quartet are never in
doubt, the bulk of Binary Garden is a repetitive
hurricane of muso noodlings and photocopied
hooks. It manages to strike into both prog metal
and metalcore territory – but runs the risk
of missing its target altogether. STEVE BEEBEE
CROWN THE EMPIRE
SUDDEN SKY
(RISE)KKK
FOR FANS OF: Bring
Me The Horizon, Bury Tomorrow, Issues
■ As purveyors of a fairly meat-and-
potatoes stripe of metalcore, Texas’ Crown
The Empire have never threatened to
revolutionise the genre. Rather, they have
always operated well within its established
confines. Returning with their fourth full-
length – and first without co-lead vocalist
David Escamilla – although they’ve leaned
more in an electronic direction and gotten a
little darker, they aren’t primed to break this
status quo here. From the start, there is a
brooding air that presides over nearly every
track, this inspired by the band apparently
staring down their innermost fears and
anxieties and fighting back through the
medium of music. Overall, it’s a less rousing
collection than 2016’s Retrograde, but that
isn’t to say that they’ve forgotten how to
pen a soaring melody or killer hook. As such,
there are some ruthlessly catchy moments here,
most notably the choruses of What I Am and RedPills, and the surging Under The Skin is the real
stand-out on this album. It’s a solid effort, but
don’t expect to be surprised. DAN SLESSORLINGUA IGNOTA
CALIGULA
(PROFOUND LORE)KKKKK
FOR FANS OF: Daughters,
Nine Inch Nails, Oathbreaker
■ There are many appellations you could throw at
LINGUA IGNOTA – real name Kristin Hayter – but
perhaps the simplest would be ‘uneasy listening’.
From blending abrasive noise with eerily spiritual
melodies, to dissecting the physical and mental
violence of domestic abuse on 2017 debut album
All Bitches Die, everything she does sets the teeth
on edge. But by God, you will listen. CALIGULA
builds on these themes, holding a mirror up to
corruption and skewed power dynamics in wider
society. The push-pull between fragile piano and
ruptures of psychic static is arresting, but by far
Kristin’s most captivating weapon is her voice.
She stacks vocal harmonies like a droning church
organ on DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR, before
disintegrating into a throat-shredding wail that
channels every moment of pain, injustice and
powerlessness into a sonic bullet. It’s an awesome
work of extreme beauty and brutality that will
leave you speechless. JAMES MACKINNON
ROSALIE CUNNINGHAM
ROSALIE CUNNINGHAM
(CHERRY RED)KKKKK
FOR FANS OF: Purson,
Hawkwind, The Dead Weather
■ The break-up of brilliant Brit psych-heads
Purson just as they were on the verge of
something special was frustrating news. Not least
of all because, for a time, it denied the world of
the eccentric, cosmic talents of singer/guitarist
Rosalie Cunningham, a woman in her twenties
with a soul seemingly displaced from swinging
London, 1967. However, the trip is far from over,
and here she returns with a solo debut that’s
even more woozily freaked out than her previous
voyages. Opener Ride On My Bike may open
with a simple, fuzzy stoner riff, but soon there are
organs, fairground melodies, and Rosalie telling
tales of what goes down ‘When the mescaline
is kicking in’. Fuck Love is a soulful, jazz-tinged
explosion of brightly-coloured flamboyance,
Dethroning Of The Party Queen is a bolshy psych
workout that’s like The Beatles at their most out of
their heads, and Riddles And Games has a riff that’s
been beamed straight from Woodstock. The party’s
not over – we’re still just coming up. NICK RUSKELL
KERRANG! 59