Although I have seen the name Pure Negative around on lots of underground gig posters I had never realised who they were until I got this demo thrust into my hands at a gig the other night. I should have done and feel guilty for not having caught them in action considering the amount of UK bands members have played in, in the past; Labrat, Kingsize Blues, As She Screams, Ted Maul and Malicious amongst them. This one is a bit out of date as it came out last year and the band are looking for a replacement singer for Tom the ex Kingsize screamer and are no doubt focused on new material and gigs once they have found their man.
The three tracks here are a good indicator of things to come, they are all lengthy and well thought out numbers with plenty going on in them and the demo is well produced and sounds nice and beefy. ‘The Return’ starts with some nice guitar melody a rasp and some unexpected crooning, but this is not the way forward as things progress with lots more bite and heaviness. Screams and rasps and solid battering give this a bit of a metalcore feel at times but the death backbone is there and guitars scythe and jump all over the place. Just as you think you are getting to grips with things some stoner licks come in and things get kind of Down on our asses just illustrating the band have lots of ideas, styles and do not want to be easily pigeonholed. There is no pause before ‘Cider Complex’ (cant knock that title) staggers in and again vocally growls, rasps and spits it’s way like a brew crew tramp desperate for fix. Last number ‘Your Misery’ goes very death laden and blasts away and takes your head off, before slowing with some doom laden licks and makes me wonder what is next for the band and what sort of style a new vocalist is going to bring to the table.
Somehow I doubt anything is exactly going to be predicable but I can imagine on the strength of this and past creativity found in former bands it’s going to be interesting. I really miss the days of the Red Eye venue as I am sure I would have seen this lot loads of times by now if it were still around, hopefully I will catch the band live soon.
http://www.myspace.com/purenegative
