Apathetic Rapture CounterCult Records 2017 Unleash the Rabies Manchester. Famous for football, Coronation Street, rain and of course, music. Manchester has always had a rich musical history with bands from the earlier days of Magazine, Joy Division, New Order and The Smiths to the Madchester scene and beyond with the likes of The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets.
Recently, the Manchester Alternative scene has been bubbling away and has seen some great bands rise through its ranks with many more still finding their feet, picking up their instruments and sticking two fingers up to a Pop culture awash with manufactured bands, the next big thing, grime, R&B and talentless winners of talentless shows. Joining this illustrious roster of bands from Manchester that have gone before them are Weapon Dogs, one of the many young Grunge/Alternative Rock bands that are currently chipping away at the Manchester underground scene. Apathetic Rapture is the first release by Weapon Dogs from their upcoming EP and the name alone sums up this generations mood, this generation is apathetic, it is nihilistic and it is struggling to find an identity in a world already made for them. Beginning with a relatively quick repeating bass pattern, Apathetic Rapture soon sticks the boot in with the drums and distorted guitar soon crashing the party. The guitar on this song has a remarkably retro tone to it, being especially reminiscent of the American Hardcore Punk scene in parts. This tone wouldn’t be out of place on releases by the likes of The Wipers, Fang or Flipper with particular leanings towards songs such as Return of the Rat by The Wipers or The Money Will Roll Right In of Fang fame. But, on the other hand, you also have a tone and mood that is mid-80’s Seattle sound and would appeal to fans of Green River and Mudhoney, whilst being chaotic enough to tweak the interest of Sonic Youth lovers. Apathetic Rapture also makes use of the drop in/drop out, quiet/loud technique used extensively by Pixies and in turn, a band influenced heavily influenced by them, Nirvana. The heavy damp tone used on Apathetic Rapture to give everything a more bassy feel is straight out of Sub-Pop, 1988. This is the sort of tone that Nirvana were experimenting with whilst recording songs in the Bleach era. However, not all of Apathetic Rapture is hero worshipping Kurt Cobain as the Manchester sound lurks just beneath the surface and the delivery of the clean, coherent and tuneful vocals bubble with some decent backing vocals and the clarity of British Alternative band such as Bush, Ash or Super Furry Animals or even pushing towards a more modern angle with Kasabian or Arctic Monkeys. With Weapon Dogs having this slant, it would certainly open up the market and significantly put them ahead of their peers as not many bands are capable of bridging the past and present together in one song, hopefully Weapon Dogs are able to follow up this EP with something as strong and relevant. Adam
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
The Home of Heavy Metal Reviews by AdamReviews of Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal and Hard Rock. Archives
December 2016
Categories |