Album Review: The Lowriders – Fury
Just when you thought a certain reality show had showed you all you need to know about Essex, The Lowriders, four lads from Colchester, have rocked up with their brand new album to prove life in Essex is not all about brain dead morons with fake tans having their feet eaten by fish. The Lowriders used to go under the moniker Freud until a couple of years ago they broke from the shackles of their record company, renamed themselves and created their own label. Add two years of blood, sweat and tears to the mix and the result is ‘Fury’. From the off it’s clear that it’s not going to be a ground-breaking album, it’s not even particularly original, the album owes a massive debt to Led Zeppelin, but the band play well and vocalist Garlick, very much an old school vocalist, pushes his vocal chords with an impressive range across the majority of the album.
Fury doesn’t start particularly well, album opener ‘Save Us’ is little more than a minute of front man Dave Garlick singing ‘Save Us’ repeatedly over a backdrop of distorted guitars, which inexplicably turns out to be the chorus of a later song. Happily things improve with ‘Blood In My Head’ and from here on in, for the most part at least, we’re treated to some enjoyable and authentic prog rock though, to be fair it would sound better live. It’s not all great, with some awful attempts by the band to sing in unison, ‘World’s On Fire’ is a dreary mess of a slow song that interrupts the flow of the album and it takes a couple of tracks to get back into its groove. Thankfully the bad is cancelled out by the good, especially ‘Killer Day’ a stunning rocker that features some particularly good tribal drumming and current single ‘Who’s Gonna Save Your Soul’ a heart-pumping, headbanger of a song. The Lowriders are clearly a talented bunch and all in all ‘Fury’ is a pretty good album, but I can’t help feeling that rather than trying to do it all for themselves the band would benefit from having someone to tell them when it’s not working.
6/10
Mark Cousens
Out now on Adrenalin Records
