alternative rock
I have to admit that I was a bit misguided by this album's cover. Usually, these kind of covers appear on dark ambient, power electronics and noise albums, rarely on anything else. However, when I read the biography and listened to the music, something completely different appeared.
Let's start with the beginning. Ulster Page is a band from France. The members were born in 1992 and thus grew up with nineties rock and grunge. With these influences, they wrote and recorded an album that seems to take the awesome sound of that era into the future.
The album opens with a blast. 'In The Explosion' is a tremendous outburst of energy and a solid reference of what the quartet is capable of. I think this remains my favorite track throughout the entire album. 'Memory' and 'Straight In The Eye' are excellent alternative rock tracks with plenty of energy and dynamics. 'Right As Violence' is a strong rock ballad with a nostalgic eighties hard rock feel, but still, 'In The Explosion' definitely stands out.
'All Or Nothing' seems to push the whole thing into a post-punk direction and even drags in a bluesy slide-guitar. I like that, it gives the album the necessary amount of variation and it's certainly able to surprise the listener. There are more great songs to be found on this album. All of them are well written rock songs, some uptempo, some slower. 'Eternal Candle' is another world class track, my second favorite here.
You can feel that there is talent in this band, not only in instrument handling but also in songwriting. With 'Memory', this quartet has released an excellent debut but perhaps time will tell that this was merely their debut. It's a very promising album, that's for sure but I think that these guys can and will come up with even more impressive music in the next few year. So yes, this comes highly recommend to all rockers out there.
Serge
Let's start with the beginning. Ulster Page is a band from France. The members were born in 1992 and thus grew up with nineties rock and grunge. With these influences, they wrote and recorded an album that seems to take the awesome sound of that era into the future.
The album opens with a blast. 'In The Explosion' is a tremendous outburst of energy and a solid reference of what the quartet is capable of. I think this remains my favorite track throughout the entire album. 'Memory' and 'Straight In The Eye' are excellent alternative rock tracks with plenty of energy and dynamics. 'Right As Violence' is a strong rock ballad with a nostalgic eighties hard rock feel, but still, 'In The Explosion' definitely stands out.
'All Or Nothing' seems to push the whole thing into a post-punk direction and even drags in a bluesy slide-guitar. I like that, it gives the album the necessary amount of variation and it's certainly able to surprise the listener. There are more great songs to be found on this album. All of them are well written rock songs, some uptempo, some slower. 'Eternal Candle' is another world class track, my second favorite here.
You can feel that there is talent in this band, not only in instrument handling but also in songwriting. With 'Memory', this quartet has released an excellent debut but perhaps time will tell that this was merely their debut. It's a very promising album, that's for sure but I think that these guys can and will come up with even more impressive music in the next few year. So yes, this comes highly recommend to all rockers out there.
Serge
