Artist: Left Side Brain
Title: Collider
Label: Sugar Shack Records
Type: Album
Any record by a band who cite the Foo Fighters as an influence is going to be hard to shift around here given that most of our writers are far more heavily inclined, although somehow I wasn’t too upset about being lumbered with this release. When Dave Grohl first came fighting back with his new band, a young and narrow minded mini me would have switched off the radio preferring to sit in silence rather than listen to such wimpy shit, but I guess I have mellowed out a lot in my old age and now I will quite gladly stick on ‘The Colour and the Shape’ every once in a while, or croon along to ‘Learn To Fly’ (Christ, I’m really letting myself in for it now, aren’t I?)
Left Side Brain adhere very much to that brand of rock, which means naturally that you shouldn’t expect anything overly original in these ten tracks, but if you’re after some good, solid hard rock then this will definitely keep your boat afloat. They strike a perfect balance between tuneful melody and relentless riffing; the collision of which is clear from the rollicking opener of ‘Ad Nominem’, as well as the catchy ‘We all got it Coming, Kid’ with its calamitously noisy chorus riff, and vocal melodies that dig right down into the heart of the tune. A personal favourite here would have to be ‘Almost Had Me’ with its exasperated cries of the chorus lines, before the heaviness descends into an Alice In Chains-esque grunge passage which adds a nice slice of atmosphere into the equation.
‘Colloblast’ has much more of a reflective vibe, which carries some winding Velvet Revolver style guitar licks and velvety vocal tones that project a really laid back and lazy groove. There’s a natural energy about this lot; it all seems to flow nicely and all of the pieces fit seamlessly into place. It’s all very pleasant and easy to listen to; an unobtrusive album that I could happily leave on my stereo in the background while I’m working. The flip-side to that is that it is all very similar and rather, what I would call, an unchallenging listen, which is more an observation than a criticism, and whether you like this or not really depends on your mood or disposition. It’s certainly a more than competent effort that has much to offer to rock world. Please, let’s have more bands like this and hopefully we can wipe out self-pitying emo bollocks once and for all!
http://www.leftsidebrain.com
http://www.sugarshackrecords.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/sugarshackrecordsuk
Luci Herbert
MTUK HOME
