Labels: Brew Records
Review by: Joe Callaghan
I was looking forward to receiving this very much, as Chickenhawk have an extremely consistent reputation of getting better and better. If you have lived in or around Leeds in the past 3 or 4 years, it was impossible to miss them. I’ve caught them at least a dozen times, including sharing a stage with them in 3 different bands, one of which in a city I relocated to 300 miles away, so these boys get about. Each time I’ve seen them, they got tighter, faster, louder and a thousand times more dynamic, more convincingly so when they added a second guitarist to multiply their volume prowess. How much better can they keep getting? This, their latest recorded offering, continues to attest their continuous advancement. A short, sweet, triumphant effort which we can only hope will stamp their authority on the uncompromisingly loud music barrier nationwide. So, 3 cuts that do the Keelhaul thing pretty well, with a little more to offer vocally, and proposes accessibility beyond their avant-garde and progressive peers, propelling Chickenhawk as nothing other than just great heavy rock. Riffs, hooks, face-pummelling ferocity and slick solidarity. This will expectantly act as a teaser of what is due to come in the future. Hopefully a release of more substance. An epic record of thunderous chugs and riffs and everything else in between. It should happen. It will happen, and I hope it happens soon. In the mean time, these 3 choice cuts will suffice at wetting our appetite, as will Chickenhawk constantly carting themselves up and down the country towards a venue near you, or relatively close, or close enough to get to by train but will require sleeping on someone’s sofa. You get the idea.