Everybody is guilty of musical snobbery of some form or another no matter how liberal they may claim to be, this humble scribe included. Picture the scene, a metal night club of the early nineties where there was a uniform of leather jackets, high top trainers and skinny jeans, or in my case, baggy shorts (some things don’t change). The bar patrons are huddled over bottles of Newcastle Brown that were not much over a pound a piece, and the door to the club opened to allow entry to a bunch of Grunge types in their brand new Nirvana shirts and obligatory scabbed nose studs. Immediately there are snarls of “trendy posers” from the assembled true metal warriors and yours truly goes to the DJ booth to make a request. Shortly some famous chords ring out of the PA, and said newcomers flock to the dance floor to flap around the over long sleeves of their jumpers, only to wind to a halt as Weird Al’s lyrics to ‘Smells Like Nirvana’ permeate the music to the accompanied pointing and laughing of yours truly and mates. Yep, I was a dick head folks.
A couple of decades later I try to be less of a wanker, and can appreciate the merits of some of the music that first came to the world’s attention from a movement that railed against an era of right wing Reaganomics, a sound and style that Helsinki’s own Polanski clearly revel in. Opener ‘Wasted Mind’ clearly owes a massive debt to Soundgarden in the frenetic stripped back guitar battering with Anottoni Pikkarainen’s vocals having an authentic sounding American nihilistic sneer. This same aggressive charge continues with ‘Give Yourself”, some punky guitar squeals mixing with the break neck speed riffs. The pace slows a bit with ‘Buried’, the licks bearing more then a passing resemblance to Pearl Jam whilst the discordant solo could have been plucked by the left hand of Cobain. The longest and by far the most metallic track of the album is ‘Hazel’, a slow burning number that could easily have drifted out of a Doom album rather than the angst filled post punk Seattle scene, complete with slow heavy riffs and a slow stomping rhythm section.
The album quickly settles back into its chosen genre, with ‘Left Behind’ having a big slice of Layne Staley era Alice In Chains in the mix, whilst each remaining track, be it the punk rush of ‘Modern Child’ or hypnotic looping riffs of ‘Lidless Sky’ just reinforce the obvious love the band has for Grunge. For quite a while now new acts wanting a retro sound have been mining the rich musical seams of the sixties and seventies; that Polanski have chosen instead the nineties Grunge scene is brave and ambitious of them, and with the passage of time since the originals, they may well find a whole new receptive market looking to discover a “new” sound, and good luck to them say I. Hopefully their fans won’t have the unfortunate displeasure of meeting younger versions of myself!
(7/10 Spenny)
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