Blake Solomon
09/09/08, 07:42 PM
Blakfish – See You In Another City EP
Record Label: Big Scary Monsters Records
Release Date: July 28, 2008
This review is a conclusion for me, but it should serve as a beginning for you. I must accept the fact that I no longer live in England. I no longer drive on the wrong side of the road. I can once again stay at bars past midnight. White socks are once again just white socks and not a sign of virginity. I won’t continue to hear the accented voices of people like Blakfish’s vocalists Sam Manville and Thomas Peckett. When they aren’t screaming their brains out, they’re shouting in a drawl that makes me yearn for crowded tube rides, fish, chips and sexy Italian tourists. I can’t keep living in England in my mind or in real life, but as long as there is the Internet and ferocious (but humourous!) post-hardcore bands such as Blakfish, I’ll be fine.
Suffice it to say, I’ve been having trouble readjusting. Blakfish make the thud of reality a little less painful. “Preparing For Guests” opens with what I now recognize as the band’s winning formula: pitchy screams, jittery guitars, semi-spoken word and an insanely talented drummer by the name of Wiz. However, the increasingly schizophrenic vocal interplay between Manville and Peckett will probably be what people remember. Their fleeting moments of harmony lift this band above familiar rabble-rousers Fall of Troy or The Blood Brothers. All of the intensity is still here (especially in this track’s A Wilhelm Scream style solo), but we also get an added dose of foot-tapping catchiness. A bridge over troubled waters, indeed!
“Carnival Carnivore” roars to life with the lines, “Fuck this! / We’re all a bunch of pretentious pricks!” Who doesn’t love a joke at the expense of oneself? This song also contains See You In Another City’s most appealing moment (and my personal favorite lyrical passage): “And in my moment of mental clarity / My mind tells me I don’t want / The things I used to want.” Johnny Foreigner-like guitar riffing abruptly turns into a grungy wall o’ sound, which then quiets into another lyrical gem, “There’s a point to everything I said / Well I think it’s that / I’m not sure what to expect next.” The most glorious part? There’s still 4 minutes of music left!? Calm down; this is where I take my leave. As I said earlier, introductions are my goal here. Any fan of any type of heavy music should saddle up and spin this. If the crazed “Da Da Da’s / Woah Oh’s” don’t excite you, maybe the whirling riffs of “Jeremy Kyle Is A Marked Man” will. Et cetera.
Recommended If You Like: Fall of Troy, Loom, sunrises, Johnny Foreigner, fresh snow
www.myspace.com/blakfish
Record Label: Big Scary Monsters Records
Release Date: July 28, 2008
This review is a conclusion for me, but it should serve as a beginning for you. I must accept the fact that I no longer live in England. I no longer drive on the wrong side of the road. I can once again stay at bars past midnight. White socks are once again just white socks and not a sign of virginity. I won’t continue to hear the accented voices of people like Blakfish’s vocalists Sam Manville and Thomas Peckett. When they aren’t screaming their brains out, they’re shouting in a drawl that makes me yearn for crowded tube rides, fish, chips and sexy Italian tourists. I can’t keep living in England in my mind or in real life, but as long as there is the Internet and ferocious (but humourous!) post-hardcore bands such as Blakfish, I’ll be fine.
Suffice it to say, I’ve been having trouble readjusting. Blakfish make the thud of reality a little less painful. “Preparing For Guests” opens with what I now recognize as the band’s winning formula: pitchy screams, jittery guitars, semi-spoken word and an insanely talented drummer by the name of Wiz. However, the increasingly schizophrenic vocal interplay between Manville and Peckett will probably be what people remember. Their fleeting moments of harmony lift this band above familiar rabble-rousers Fall of Troy or The Blood Brothers. All of the intensity is still here (especially in this track’s A Wilhelm Scream style solo), but we also get an added dose of foot-tapping catchiness. A bridge over troubled waters, indeed!
“Carnival Carnivore” roars to life with the lines, “Fuck this! / We’re all a bunch of pretentious pricks!” Who doesn’t love a joke at the expense of oneself? This song also contains See You In Another City’s most appealing moment (and my personal favorite lyrical passage): “And in my moment of mental clarity / My mind tells me I don’t want / The things I used to want.” Johnny Foreigner-like guitar riffing abruptly turns into a grungy wall o’ sound, which then quiets into another lyrical gem, “There’s a point to everything I said / Well I think it’s that / I’m not sure what to expect next.” The most glorious part? There’s still 4 minutes of music left!? Calm down; this is where I take my leave. As I said earlier, introductions are my goal here. Any fan of any type of heavy music should saddle up and spin this. If the crazed “Da Da Da’s / Woah Oh’s” don’t excite you, maybe the whirling riffs of “Jeremy Kyle Is A Marked Man” will. Et cetera.
Recommended If You Like: Fall of Troy, Loom, sunrises, Johnny Foreigner, fresh snow
www.myspace.com/blakfish