The heat is on for Cambridge’s The Treatment. There’s a lot riding on the new boys – guitarist Tao Grey and vocalist Mitchel Emms, who puts in an astonishing, bravura performance – and a bunch of songs intended to represent something of a step up and beyond the decent but uneven brace of preceding albums.
Fortunately, everything good about the band’s previous incarnation – the powerhouse AC/DC riffing and ballsy energy – has been preserved and amplified by a new-found sense of urgency and songwriting focus.
For the most part this is foot-to-the-floor dirty, bluesy hard rock, exemplified by the swaggering likes of Let It Begin, Cry Tough (nothing to do with Poison, fortunately) and Generation Me, complemented by the Bon Jovi-esque Backseat Heartbeat and heavy grind of Better Think Again. This is consistently top stuff, but surely just the beginning of something much greater.
