Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Nine Black Alps - Everything Is

The much anticpated debut album from Nine Black Alps finally hits the shelf, and it's as if Kurt Cobain never left us. There is little subtlety in these 12 songs. The band obviously love the whole Nirvana "Grunge" thing, and have set out in making a collection jam packed of the kind of music that would sit side-by-side with Nevermind, without ever threatening to reach the heights of musical genius of that particular classic.

Derivative it may be, but if that kind of music is your thing, you will find much to rock out to on this great album. Singles "Not Everyone" and "Shot Down" are mini-classics, but my personal favourite is "Ironside", which sadly has nothing to do with Raymond Burr but is a sub-3 minute slice of power pop that Dave Grohl would do well to replicate these days.

The pace is ferrocious (with only "Behind Your Eyes" slowing proceedings down at any stage) but Nine Black Alps have thankfully realised that making "loud" music doesn't neccessarily mean that the tunes and melodies have to go missing as well. Much like Cobain, Nine Black Alps probably wont appreciate talk of pop "sensibilities", but that's exactly what they have. And long may they continue in that vein.

Icon's View - 4 out of 5.

No comments: