The awakening of new millennium metal thunder starts right here.
Welcome to the world of Self Made Man, Dundee's very own nuclear holocaust. To call this band a thrash metal band would be not far off the mark in the same way that you'd hav called early Metallica that, and, in many ways, the similarity is appropriate - not so much musically but because that band went beyond the genre - and so do this band. They play a mighty, huge-sounding roaring brew of ultimate metal mealstrom proportions, but with a difference - the quality of their songs is absolutely top of the tree in every respect.
This is a band who play it ultra loud and ultra heavy, super fast and tungsten-strength. But the lyrics are not only perfectly audible but genuinely intelligent with something to say and the right way of saying it. Add to that the fact that their singer is just incredible - I mean, this guy SINGS as well as hollers with a voice perfectly suited to the metal mayhem that rages all around and a range that is ferocious.
Opening with a short introduction that lets you know where they're coming from with voice samples and strange guitar effects, the first real track comes along and the band just erupt as we are immediately launched into the potency that is the pure adrenaline-rush howl of "Self Made Man", the bass a floor-shaking earthquake, the guitar riffs and leads on fire and the drums a thunderous roar as the vocalist really lets go and delivers the song with an intensity that leaves you open-mouthed with amazement as the whole thing just flies at jet-speed and the song soars and dives to magnificent effect, one of THE finest examples of raging metal that you'll hear anywhere. The band play it hard and fast, with a supernova guitar solo in there for good measure as it all crushes your skull with an almost indecent delight - and you love every second of its near six minute running time.
If you thought that was a metal melting pot, the next track opens with a flying riff and searing guitar leads, high-flying hollered vocals that could bore holes in battleships and a rhyhtm section that's a positive blur as it, too, erupts like a volcano at its height, steam, heat and fire pouring out of every second as the napalm-fire tears down everything in its path, the song once again, so immaculately listenable and enjoyable for such a monstrously metallic slice of ultra-fast attack. The whole band are supercharged and on fire, the result is a song that is truly incendiary and one stone cold stunner of a track.
As though the band know you can't keep that level of intensity going from start to finish, they provide a brief respite on the fourth track - a chiming guitar chord opening the song as the delicate bass and wondrous lead vocal begin an unashamed rock ballad with goth undertones - then - kerboooommmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!! - the drums hammer in, background chorus wells up, the bass thunders and the guitar roars as the vocals are now delivered with a passion and power that is just hypnotic. Then the song takes a twist to become an anthemic slice of muscular rock as the guitar and bass rise up above the driving drums, the vocals start to rise and the whole thing just lifts off like a rocket as one amazing song just gets better and better as it goes, twisting and turning along the way, but maintaining a consistency and cohesion on a song that many a more successful metal band would kill to have written, and this is a song that is way beyond the sum of its parts - six and a half minutes of pure genius and no mistake, one that I'll be playing to death for sure.
Track five starts with rifle-fire riffs and rhythms as the intensity begins to glow, this time a lower register vocal starting things off, but gradually piling on the passion as yet another awesome vocal performance follows above the swirling whirlpool of red hot riffing and attacking rhythms, this track taken at a slightly slower pace for the first three minutes before erupting as a fireball of a lead guitar comes to life and makes its presence felt. Once again, the song is heard clearly with lyrics that really deserve to be heard and considered.
Finally, a track that has been a live favourite for a while as a mighty opener and here, with a slight touch of roaring raging stoner rock to its muscular riffing, provides the same effect as THE most awesome slice of anthemic hardcore metal exudes the firepower of a small army with enough energy to light up the east coast of Scotland. The chorus, as such, is just incedible, the twist and turn between anthemic and pure adrenlaine-rush rage, something to leave you jaw-dropped every time you hear it. The band produce a thunderous blast of pure window-rattling metal that, if turned up loud enough, should ensure you'll need to call in the glaziers the following morning. A song that is just awesome to finish off a near thirty minute EP that is all that and more.
To say that this band are hot is like saying that Metallica are a bit well known - this band is fucking amazing and then some - if you want raging contemporary metal that will blow you apart every time you hear it, you simply have to get this CD - because one day this band is gonna be huge and you'll regret that you missed your chance.