Artist: Panic Cell
Title: Fire it Up
Type: Album
Label: Undergroove Records

The return of the Cell! “Three”, opined the lyrical geniuses in De La Soul, “is a magic number”. Following on from their earlier two albums, “Fire it Up” might just be the album to finally push Panic Cell further into the public consciousness and into the metal limelight. Despite having a groove-heavy, agreeably thick and chunky sound and video-friendly appearance, it seems that the United Kingdom are incapable of propelling worthy acts onto the top table of the metal wedding. Panic Cell are clearly at the top of the domestic tree with their mainstream metal friendly but still agreeably heavy formula of modern aggression. “Fire it up” takes the successful formula laid down by the previous platter, the aptly titled “What doesn’t kill us” (released back in 2007), and (to coin a phrase) turns everything up to eleven. Given the massive fuss that was made about Machine Head upon the release of their frankly mediocre “The Blackening”, “Fire It Up” should already have seen Panic Cell on the covers of the print magazines. As ever with Panic Cell, the strong vocals of Luke have centre stage, though this time around the boys have wisely decided to stay clear of some of the more cloying, emotional numbers that infested their earlier work. Instead, we have more mid-tempo, swinging guitar work, a full and fruity rhythm section doing their best to provide the tasty, filling backing to the tracks, with more than a smattering of tasteful and well played guitar solos to boot.

The song writing and production are both as exemplary as you would expect from a band who are now hammering at the glass ceiling that seeks to contain all British bands, though the sheer professionalism and compelling drive of the sound makes me sure that the time for Panic Cell to ascend has come. Now, if only the metal press would rally round behind a true prospect act and have the balls to place them as cover stars – if even for one month of Metal Hammer – then I am sure that they would be able to play to wider audiences and bring their agreeable and nod-worthy tunes to larger venues. As it is, Panic Cell have released a far better album than virtually any of their peers, and it remains within the power of the dead press and their record company to ensure that it reaches as wide an audience as possible.

http://www.myspace.com/paniccell

Chris Davison

MTUK HOME