Words by Nick Wells
While a band billed as a combination of The Foo Fighters, Green Day and Alter Bridge gives itself a clear template from which to work, it also leaves open the possibility of being seen as derivative. Instead, from the first moment of the opening track of Universe, the new album from A New Tomorrow, the sense is of a band standing on giants’ shoulders and lifting off into its own stratosphere. For, make no mistake, based on this album the band has it in them to carve their own niche in the rock firmament.
The single I Wanna Live definitely evokes The Foos, but stands on its own as a four-minute gem. Alessio Garavello’s vocals take flight in the gloriously commercial chorus and don’t touch down again during the whole album.
In Step Into the Wild the softer side of the band is glimpsed and the chorus becomes wildly memorable after a few listens. The restrained mood is carried over into the beginning of Home but is blown away by what follows in the rest of the song.
Universe, the eponymous title track, seems a contender for single release, containing as it does more hooks and soaring vocals. One slightly off note: the bonus track, Abrasive, brings to mind Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak in terms of content and feel but, honestly, is superfluous to the collection. It manages to over-extend itself in its near six minutes where all the other tracks have said and done what they need to in around four.
In fact, it is in the very concision of nearly all the songs that the attraction of Universe ultimately lies. Not for this band the tortuous seven minute, self-indulgent epics that many others in this genre seem unable to avoid. This album sets out to deliver its message in bite-size chunks, with crunching guitars and powerful vocals and it succeeds in doing just that.
If you like your harder-edged rock just on the edge of popular then take a listen.
No comments:
Post a Comment