Artist: Tricore
Title: Less Than Man, More Than Rabbit
Type: Album
Label: Core Kord Music
I end up hearing quite a few debut albums doing this reviewing lark, and some of them are pretty lame affairs, destined to get one play on my stereo and a rather perfunctory write up. Sometimes, however, one comes along that manages to grab my attention and make me listen intently. The bizarrely entitled ‘Less Than Man, More Than Rabbit’ by Tricore is one of those latter ones. Never having heard them before, the opening guitar riff of ‘Slap’, backed by a blistering drum attack at first promised the potential of an all out thrash attack. Then the vocals kicked in, and the band takes a nu-metal course, with hints of SOAD particularly apparent in the chorus, with its twisted harmonies followed by battering guitars.
Track 2, ‘Fyrom’, builds on this, vocals going from a scornful near whine to an angry bark, the bass coming to the fore with a groovier sound pushing through the mix, guitars going from heavy riffs to bizarre squeals in some opportune instrumental breaks. Lyrically, themes of urban discontent abound, the initially gentle ‘Smallbird’ espousing that “we’re all built machines; we’re all not right in the head”, the song structure making me think very much of some of Drowning Pool’s lighter tracks, especially in the play between guitar and vocals.
On their web page, the band cites SOAD, Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine as influences. Equally, in angry industrial tinged tracks like ‘Straight Edge’, the sound of Therapy? could be inferred, with its simple stripped back structure, the synths and samples that pepper other tracks being pretty much absent, but plenty of beats for a pit to bounce to.
Going to their website gives anyone with a mere £6 to spare the chance to lay hands on a 14 track album that runs at well over an hour, and showcases the energy of an emergent new band. With a price like that, and a sound that should appeal to the newer alternate rock/metal crowds, Tricorne have done themselves proud and deserve applause.
http://www.myspace.com/thetricore
Spenny Bullen
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