The quiet bit loud bit song structure has been commonplace in alternative rock music since Nirvana’s Nevermind, but few bands have deployed it as dynamically as this St Albans quartet who swing from angelic Tears For Fears style dreamscapes to drum and bass punk to Anthrax riffing ferocity within the same verse and never shy from a killer chant-a-long chorus.
Add to the mix highly politicised lyrics – and by highly politicised we include chief screamer Rou Reynolds bellowing _‘we’re sick of this shit’ on the fantastically riotous Gandhi Mate, Gandhi_ – and the unlikely name-checking of Ernest Shackleton and you have a mix that’s either triumphantly effective or an unlistenable tangle, depending on how you feel about the word fusion.
Testament to the band’s wider ambitions are two songs that shift focus away from high energy ranting and into territory closer to Coldplay – the anthemic Pack of Thieves and epic Constellations – both of which could be described as wimpy hardcore.
