TWIN ATLANTIC - Vivarium CD
Wow!!!What a band!! The current vanguard of Scottish indie rock provide an 8-tracker that is pretty well guaranteed to blow you away. Their trademark is the obvious Scottish accent of the lead vocalist and it's just brilliant. He sounds like he's out to conquer the world with that wondrous snarl of a vocal while the band deliver a blistering performance throughout. The album opens with “Lightspeed”, fuelled by an adrenaline rush of rhythm as this sea of guitars provides an infinite riffing splendour as the production makes it all sound absolutely immense, and the song just scorches through your head and into your heart. This segues directly into the lurching might of “Old Grey Face”, as what you think might turn out to be a more obviously commercial track, instead turns into this blazing arena of massive sounding guitars, riffing and soloing to jaw-dropping degree, as the vocals just soar, intensifying higher and higher as the whole thing lifts off to another universe in a roar of heady delight. “You're Turning Into John Wayne” is not only a clever slice of songwriting, but delivered with an accent that could put holes in a stetson at 40 paces. The song twists and turns between verse and hook, amid an ocean of chiming, ringing guitars and strong rhythms, before blasting off to the skies on a burst of guitars only to drop back down in a fury of lurching beats, as the song's verses and hooks return to see things out in an absolute arena-sized mass of guitars, propelled by mighty rhythm strength. “Caribbean War Syndrome” starts things more sedately with chiming guitars and whispered vocals, before the drums enter to provide strong lurching beats, with deep bass pounding below as the song ensues, reaches a hook, as the band explode – then stop – to let the song return – another verse – the band explodes, then thiungs quieten down to a brooding vocal and the whole thing builds on another verse of accented vocal, impassioned vocal, solid, lurching drums and ringing guitars – only for it all to catch fire one more time, only this time a massive blitz of guitars leads the song into anthem territory before there's another twist and turn as the song is sent in an altogether more multi-part vocal direction on the hook, a distant piano providing extra texture to the proceedings, as the band see the track out almost like the end of Faith No More's “Epic” only with more guitars – so you think – but then – kerbooooommmmmm!!!!! - the band go nuclear and explode into one last burst of life and guitars and rhythm thunder before the whole thing finally ends sedately on ringing guitar chords. Fantastic!! “What Is Light? Where Is Laughter?” is simply another surging, roaring, dynamic, varied, cohesive, guitars-driven epic of a piece with solid vocals, impassioned, biting and angst-ridden, an arrangement that twists and turns from yearning tension to a shattering roar, as the guitars go supernova, the rhythm section ignites and the song is simply sensational. “Human After All” starts with galloping rhythms and stirring indie guitars ringing away as a lurch of a song sparks into life, the scorching verses rising into an even more adrenaline-rousing, uplifting, intense hook that just takes off like a rocket. The band's dynamics of arrangement, as on the rest of the album, are spot on and just add immensely to the overall enjoyment of a stack of truly incendiary tracks. This track simply goes places you couldn't have imagined, where no other band would go. “Audience And Audio” is a long-standing fave, here re-recorded from the previous mini-album, and now sounding this incredible dense, intense riffing monster of a track with its lurching, rock solid drums, upfront thundering bass and an ocean of guitars that riff and roar to perfection, while, on top of all this, one highly charged vocal performance of great emotional intensity, just erupts all over the place to a degree of enjoyability that's off the scale. Finally, “Better Weather” which starts slowly with a mix of echoing and chiming guitars, brooding vocals and a general air of storm clouds to come, before the band pour forth at strengthened mid-pace, and what amounts to a true Twin Atlantic epic mini-ballad, finishes the album on a mix of flag-waving vastness and aching tenderness that leaves you breathless, the dynamics of drift and boost, a wonder to behold. Overall, it's as faultless as they come, as energising as they come and one of the finest things a signed Scottish indie band has yet produced for universal delight.