Glanville are from Germany, whilst they have a strong presence based upon the reviews I have seen, the music for me brings another line of enquiry to the table.
This is simple hard rock, it has a cool twin guitar to the 5 tracks in the EP and opener ‘God is Dead’ provides the blueprint. The real catchy-as-hell tunes follow with ‘Dancing on Fire’ reminiscent for me to 70’s Kiss, being a particular highlight. When the twin guitars feature, you get Thin Lizzy running through your soul. The vocals are especially strong, raspy and powerful. Some of the running fretboard riffs could mischievously lead you to a British music scene of late ’79 to mid-80’s.
When the whole EP is played a few more times, I actually feel this is great big venue music. It’s dynamic and travels well. The mixing was handled by Chris West in St Albans (you may know him from his exploits in ‘Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Night’) and produced by the bands singer Rene Hofmann. It’s made to fill stadiums and doesn’t get lost, simple yet effective.
This is Germany’s answer to gritty hard rock and metal taking influence from the long established British and American scenes. Whilst not that ground breaking stylistically, the presentation and feel is classic, timeless and cunningly updated for modern times. They may be “your new favourite band you’ve never heard of” as flyers suggest, it’s worth checking them out for those who like things simple but effective.
(7/10 Paul Maddison)
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