++ALBUM++ review by Matt Merritt
Matt Merritt tightens his skull shaped belt and attempts to get his head around the teenage angst of Fighting With Wire. Will be seduced into growing dope in his closet and hiding grot mags from his mum? Find out here!
I suppose you might call it Metal, but it isn’t - not really. If you look behind the LOUD guitars and the tendency to get a bit screamy and shouty in the verses, you’ll find a band who could appeal even if you don't wear eyeliner or attach large quantities of zipper to your trousers.
What we have here is a group who manage to capture little elements of everyone from the Fall Out Boy/My Chemical Romance emo tinged pop bands... to their fellow Northern Ireland-ers Ash. They blend it all into an album that’s mostly simple, largely accessible - and most of all plain fun.
"it's destined to be blasted out of cheap tinny speakers in teenagers bedrooms up and down the land..."
Make no mistake, you’re not going to find anything new or excitingly different here, but then that’s not really what the band are about. These lads write music just because they love music, and ultimately there's not much wrong with that.
While, for example, ‘All For Nothing’ is perhaps a little too angst-ridden to appeal to those of us who’re long past adolescence, it's regardlessly destined to be blasted out of cheap tinny speakers in teenagers bedrooms up and down the land.
And for every track like that, the band counter with something different, so the following song, ‘Strength In Numbers’ is replete with fuzzy garage rock guitars and tender moments where the musicians let things mellow.
When former Jetplane Landing man Cahir O’Doherty put the band together alongside his Clearshot bandmate Craig McKean, there was a lot of expectation. The result isn't a classic album, but certainly a step in the right direction.
++ Matt Merritt ++
Artrocker rating: 2
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