The metal column is back and it’s more badass than ever! In celebration of the wealth of new albums being sent to your earlugs recently, we’ve picked three to review in digestable chunks for you right now! We have pop-punk, German metal and the finest punk-rock around, so hold on tight and turn it up loud!
Streetfight Silence – Cutting Strings
Missing the summer already? No one will blame you, we didn’t have much of one. If you want to be reminded what summer feels like, look no further than ‘Cutting Strings’, the debut album from Streetfight Silence. The newest band in pop-rock are bright and sunny, with songs that will make you bounce no matter how dark the clouds above your head may be (literally or figuratively). Their positive rays will make you smile, and their jaunty guitars and perfect harmonies make you hum along until the sun goes down. Did we take the summer/weather analogy too far? Maybe, but you get the point. Even at the slower moments (‘6th November’, most notably), the songs will still put a smile on your face, whilst the likes of ‘White Flags’ will just make you want to jump around the house. It’s bright, it’s fun and it’s happy, and Streetfight Silence are a band you need in your life right now.
Ost+Front – Ave Maria
When you think of German metal, who do you think of? Rammstein, naturally. It would seem that Ost+Front do too, perhaps a little too much. When I first listened to ‘Ave Maria’, I thought I’d accidentally downloaded the famous German metallers, but alas I was mistaken. It was simply another band copying their style exactly. Now, if I was reviewing Rammstein I’d be impressed, but at this stage I simply find it hard to accept. ‘Ave Maria’ has no sense of originality, nothing to make them stand out from other bands emerging from Germany at the moment, which is where they fail. Admittedly, they do what they do extremely well. ‘Ave Maria’ is a dark, aggressive and yet lively album which only belongs in an arena with fireballs and a crowd going crazy. Just listen to ‘911’ for confirmation. I just wish they’d been a little more adventurous with their sound, experimented a little, and some up with something entirely their own rather than copying someone else exactly. If you like Rammstein then you’ll most likely love this, but if you’re looking for something more original then sadly, Ost+Front are not for you.
Green Day – ¡Uno!
Well, well, well. What is there to say? Green Day are back! Not only that, but they’re bringing us one of their most ambitious projects to date (aside from the rock operas of course). ¡Uno! is the first of three albums to be released in as many months from the godfathers of modern punk-rock, and boy is it a good one. Anyone who was starting to lose faith in the band given the direction of the last few albums, have hope! ¡Uno! sees Green Day return to their lesser known but more appreciated style of the Nimrod era. The songs have been stripped back to basics, and the sound is all the better for it. With the exception of singles ‘Oh Love’ and the somewhat crazy ‘Kill The DJ’, the songs are fast and punky. ‘Let Yourself Go’ is the stand out moment, as vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong snarls his way through insults over a punky riff. It’s just a shame that heavy drug use is the fuel for such a fine album. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for Billie Joe Armstrong.
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