It’s been fairly the slog for SKAM. They’ve toiled away in the course of England since 2011’s It’s Come To This launched a extremely competent energy trio, albeit one with little to tell apart them from the herd. Three years later Peacemaker – notably the standout The Wire – was a wall of sound. Simply after they appeared set truthful for meat-’n’-potatoes success, in 2017 they jettisoned the template and chanced their arm with The Wonderful Memoirs Of Geoffrey Goddard, an idea album a couple of time-travelling Spitfire pilot. It rocked, however in another way.
Seven years on (why it’s been seven years is way from clear), what now? They’ve doubled down, constructed on the most effective of their previous, added a up to date twist and gone for rock broke. And so they’ve succeeded spectacularly. From the scorching first moments of the opening Rising Fever wherein guitarist/singer Steve Hill unleashes a dizzyingly ferocious guitar solo, it’s fairly clear what lies forward and SKAM don’t disappoint.
Highlights abound, whether or not it’s the galloping drums that underpin Destiny Of The Souls earlier than it pauses halfway by means of to construct into an impressive guitar avalanche, with added backing vocals; the noisy pathos of the annoyed working man’s anthem The Grind (‘Paid my dues, working the nine-tofive… I can’t cease screaming’), or the buzzsaw bitterness of Egocentric Good friend: ‘You at all times appear to let me down.’
For probably the most half, these could also be songs craving for escape from the routine, however SKAM are seemingly on a one-band quest to remind us how thrilling all-out, no-holds-barred guitar rock might be. They provide screaming wind-tunnel riffs, engine-room thunder from Neal Hill’s drums (can you will have lead drums? SKAM can) and Matt Gilmore’s bass, and it’s all topped off by Steve Hill’s strutting vocals.
SKAM do all this within the method of a basic energy trio. They’ve the tempo and thrust of Hüsker Dü and Sugar, the unmistakeable Britishness of Remedy? and Feeder, and an depth that’s totally their very own.
Inevitably, this album is extra relentless and fewer refined than Geoffrey Goddard, however this pony nonetheless has greater than only one trick. Travesty has an earworm refrain, Face Down is a percussive tour de drive and, better of all, the closing title monitor takes virtually 9 minutes to evolve from its whooshing-wind near-prog opening (assume The Damned’s Curtain Name, however just for a second) right into a rip-roaring anthem.
From The Depths is nice leap ahead for the Leicester band. Their future now appears to be like dazzling.
From The Depths is out there from Skam’s web site.