We don’t get stacks of discs from Visible Noise; no doubt they are wise enough not to send us stuff from the likes of Bring Me The Horrizon and Lost Prophets. They do have some great acts though and on reading the biog accompanying Your Demise’s debut album I really did not know whether this was going to be a hit or miss situation. I won’t hold the fact that they come from St Albans against them but was concerned that they had supported bands as far flung apart as Biohazard, Comeback Kid and Enter Shikari. Apparently before getting such shows they spent five years playing scout huts, youth clubs and suffering all sorts of motorway catastrophes, line up changes and even 24 hours in solitary confinement in a Belgian prison. Makes you wonder why bands put themselves through all this really doesn’t it, fame, fortune, travelling to strange places (and seeing only the inside of another faceless venue), groupies, and of course reviews by idiots like me.
Luckily Your Demise are getting a good one of the latter as despite some odd ideas this is a good album. In fact on going to their MySpace page and just hearing one track this instantly ended up on my review pile. The albums title track builds with some angry vocals and some great solid sounding guitar and bass work with a hint of Steve Albini about them. Suddenly full throttle is engaged as with barely a pause we volley into ‘Burnt Tongues’ This angry raging hardcore engages the listener into hitting anything at hand as it swaggers around, stomping all in its wake. I certainly understand the Biohazard slots here and would have considered them the perfect support on the strength of this. Laying off the gang shouts till third number ‘Nothing left But Regret’ is probably a good idea as they really make their mark here and on shouting out ‘Do It’ make this a memorable number.
A snatch of random sounding electronics pops up for a minute as ‘Hypochondriac’ and has you thinking it was a bit strange breaking up the flow of the music. On first listen this just has you scratching your head before the hobnailed boots of ‘Dreaming Of Believing’ jump all over you again. A few beefy breakdowns later the head is well and truly scratching again at ‘Unknown Dub.’ As suggested this is a techno track heavy on bleeps and bloops and one reminding me of stuff such as Black Dog, Orbital and Future Sounds Of London and Aphex Twin which although I love (and may surprise people as recognising) wonder what the hell it is doing here? Well I suppose every band needs some sort of gimmick and this is certainly one from Your Demise. I do wonder whether they have done this themselves and if it gets an airing at live shows though. This track would make a good intro tape before they unleashed hell and I could quite happily listen to a whole album like this, just for a change.
With a stack more abrasive and abusive numbers such as ‘All I Never Wanted To Be’ kicking up a storm there is plenty here for the mosh pit warriors to dance around the living room to, karate kicking the best china ornaments off the windowsill. There are also some more oddities such as the drum and bass etched ‘Great Shape’ to chill out and spliff one up to. Your Demise are off on tour with Your Demise, Deez nuts and others I confess to never having heard of, bet they kick up the shit as they rampage through England and Germany. As for the album it’s great and fair play to the group for having the balls to do something a bit different on it.
http://www.myspace.com/yourdemise
