Some might compare Nine Black Alps to grunge’s quintessence, Nirvana, but a more accurate description might be the usual prog rock group \u2013 think Franz Ferdinand or Interpol \u2013 with their intensity dialed up more than a few notches.\u00a0 Their 2006 debut, Everything Is<\/i>, is anything but everything, but it does capture the post-grunge genre with a dark and astounding energy.<\/p>\n
The quartet from Manchester, England, smashes your headphones mercilessly with track one, \u201cGet Your Guns,\u201d opening with heavily distorted power chords and despondently fierce lyrics from a frustrated lover, \u201cIs there any wonder why I bother? \/ Hanging round to take the pain.\u201d\u00a0 Ouch.\u00a0 The next two tracks refuse to hold back, too, particularly the multi-layered, feedback-heavy distortion amid frontman Sam Forrest’s screaming lyrics in \u201cNot Everyone.\u201d\u00a0 If uber-hard rock is your thing, the first three tracks are a hell of an appetizer.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, Nine Black Alps lets up, albeit only by a few decibels, in \u201cUnsatisfied,\u201d which turns out to clearly be the most well rounded track on the album.\u00a0 The ballad opens with a surprisingly simple but goosebump-inducing riff on solo guitar.\u00a0 The opening and restrained verses are the first moments of relative peace on the album, but they contrast remarkably well with the explosive chorus that features those same old power chords between protests, \u201cJust sick and tired of all I’ve tried \/ Unsatisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nine Black Alps tries to move beyond its boundaries with a couple of acoustic renditions in \u201cBehind Your Eyes\u201d and \u201cIntermission.\u201d\u00a0 While they each allow the listener to exhale a bit, they don’t offer a wealth of interesting material here, though the latter plays the part more effectively, offering greater instrumental depth than the former.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, the quartet sticks to the hard rock formula with grand results on songs like \u201cIronside\u201d and \u201cShot Down,\u201d with relentlessly driving percussion provided by drummer James Galley and top-notch instrumental cues from the rest of the band.\u00a0 It begins to feel one-dimensional towards the end of the album when you realize all you’ve heard are power chords, ample yelling, and at times unbearable amounts of feedback.\u00a0 It closes on a strong note, though, with slower-burning \u201cSouthern Cross:\u201d mechanical minor chords again buoy one of the more solid vocal performances on the album.<\/p>\n
While Everything Is<\/i> may not satisfy those seeking an inventive assimilation of varied rock influences, it simply nails post-grunge on the head, with headbang-worthy energy and fervor on nearly every track.\u00a0 It rocks supreme…but that’s about all it does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8782],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-42513","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-nine-black-alps","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42513"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42513"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}