I enjoyed this East Yorkshire mobs last release, the EP ‘Ghost in the Machine’, now the band are striding forward with a full length release. Initial impressions are that the band have matured, certainly vocalist Neil Bailey continues to genre bend his vocal style, I think it’s a British thing, he has a tone like Blaze Bailey (I’m not sure if there is a family connection, probably just coincidence on surnames!), with a sense of vibrato towards the end of some big notes, totally apparent on the opener and title track. The use of melody is pleasing, it’s clever, but it uses some tones from genres that I really don’t like, i.e. popular modern emo bands, however, the musical barrage in the background makes this far from a teenagers dream, and this is a mature metal album pure and simple.
Often labelled as thrash, there are elements of that here, but they like a bit of Maiden, especially flipping from one riff to the next. One thing that does let the side down is the lack of guitar overdubs during some of the solos; this makes the sound that little bit more thinner. If you require thinking man’s music, then ‘The Gentle Art of Combustion’ delivers the goods, musically anyway, the bass is also louder in the mix and therefore has something to say, and even has its own moment later in the track. Pastel Jack go very emotive, this comes from the vocals again, however whilst it gives a little, the glory is dampened somewhat as there is a tendency to go that little bit nasal in the delivery on some of the vocal lines, that’s just a bug bearer of mine. Out of everything on offer, I find ‘Part Two (Your Sick Machine)’ stands out the most with it’s the ferocity and thrashing nature of the riffs that make this thunder into life, and after listening to ‘Trojan Horse’ well into double figures before fingers on the keyboard, this is what I was looking for. Emotion and softer moments only work for a small audience, I need this, I need this energy. Whilst being thankful for this, it’s a shame I have had to wait so long; I have found my concentration wandering during many –a-play of this album. Further into the release, another crowd pleaser is ‘Methematic’ or ‘Synergy’, they are more up tempo, they breathe more and doesn’t want to bring you down like some of the earlier songs on the album, I guess what I am trying to say is that the running order of an album is very important.
There are moments of clarity, moments of pure energy, there is a hybrid of sounds across genres, I certainly raise my fist right back at you guys, it’s a much improved effort, but a little hit and miss in places if I am honest, an unfortunate trait of many British bands compared to other countries with musical similarities. It may not float many boats in terms of musical extremity, but there is a keen ear present in Pastel Jack’s song writing process and some of these writing skills only come with a great deal of experience, or a total fluke when writing songs!
(6/10, Paul Maddison)
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