Or post to:
SoundsXP,
30 Somerville Road,
London, SE20 7NA, UK
UK releases only.
Please note: If submitting demos or self financed releases - we currently
have a backlog of such material. It could be some time before your item
is reviewed.
Heroes of Switzerland
Comfort in Fear
Music To Bleed To Records
Article
written by Ged M
Mar 12, 2008.
A recent survey of HMV stores indicated that Nottingham was the epicentre of heavy metal fandom. Like most people I discounted this as your usual advertising-masquerading-as-journalism non-story until this record from Nottingham’s Heroes of Switzerland arrived. Then it all dropped into place: Nottingham remains hard rock heaven. Their PR sheet says it all: “we’re not afraid to play our instruments properly, we’re not afraid to have solos and we’re not scared of rock”. As a statement of intent, that’s right. They unashamedly drop the names of Metallica, Rush (pass the sickbag) and Whitesnake (too late!) as some of their influences. The sound combines shoegazing rock noise with crunching post-rock rhythms, interrupted by some serious soloing. I even took up smoking just so I’d have a lighter to wave during the Boston-sounding solo in ‘Waiting’.
But the record doesn’t really work. Yes they can play their instruments well, yes they can solo and, yes, they dare to play their heavy rock at volume. But it’s nothing if it’s not inspiring and this definitely isn’t. Heroes of Switzerland’s music might go down well in Rock City but here it’s just another flood of lumpen-metal, flat vocals and uninspiring lyrics. The best lyric in fact is the sampled commentary on an A-bomb test under which they place some post-rock doodling on ‘Panic Attack’. The best song is the most far out, the spacey, melodic Cocteaus-like ‘Worthwhile’, with its whisper of guitars. Overall, Heroes of Switzerland can talk a good fight but they deliver retro stadium-rock that makes you wonder why we fought the punk rock wars. But the spods of Kerrang! will love it.
RSS | MESSAGE
BOARDS | SEARCH
Calling
all music fans based in the UK... Do you want your views to be read
by 5000 people a day? Contact 
Related link(s): 
What
people are wittering about on the SoundsXP forums right now...
