Album Review

Attack! Attack! – Long Road To Nowhere

• 15th Apr 2013

Long Road To Nowhere is Attack! Attack!’s swan song, as the album was recorded shortly before the band’s own demise. Just shy of a month ago, the band announced on their Facebook and Twitter pages that Attack! Attack! would be no more, with a final tour booked for April/May this year before the Welsh four piece, containing half the original members, would say goodbye forever.

So, Long Road To Nowhere had to be good. It had to be an album that would justify the band saying farewell, and had to do the fans justice and, most importantly, had to do the band justice. And it does.

Long Road To Nowhere takes what A!A! did on their previous two albums (Self-Titled and The Latest Fashion), and build on it. It opens with ‘Hate Song’, which as the title suggests, is probably the heaviest that the band have released. It is a crushing opener which grabs the listener almost instantly with a ferocious drum beat laden with heavy guitars and a banging bass. Neil Starr’s vocals sound better than ever, with this song showing his prowess to sound gritty and in control.

This is also shown in the first song the band released, ‘Cut To The Chase’, which showed fans what kind of direction A!A! would be taking with this album – a harder, less pop-punk sound and an over all more mature throughout. The same can be said for such songs as ‘Bitter End’, and ‘Burn the Liars’. This band have moved forward and their talent will surely be missed.

This is evident in possibly the best track on the album, ‘Miles Away’. An infectious guitar opener again grabs the listener instantly, but it’s the chorus which sells the song – both the lyrics and the musicianship. Starr bellows “Miles away from from anywhere that we could call home / We’re suffering but we’re not alone” over the earlier guitar riff, and it’s as contagious as it gets. Prepare to have this song in your head for days on end.

It is the final song which is the band’s true swan song, the album’s title track. Kicking off slower than everything else we’ve heard so far, Starr’s vocals softer than we’ve heard before. Slowly, the rest of the band join him before the song explodes open. This song truly shows just how apt this band is, how gelled they were as a group. Many band’s aim to be as tight as Attack! Attack! are, or were, depending how you look at it.

If you are a fan of this band, this is an album you need to get involved in. Coming up is a tour you need to get involved in. If you had not heard this band, I strongly you suggest you take the opportunity now to do it. Come the end of May, there won’t be an Attack! Attack! to see live (apart from some crabcore monstrosity). So take a moment to see what a well oiled machine of a band can sound like, while you have the chance.

Download: Miles Away, hate Song, Bitter End, Long Road

Venue: Long Road To Nowhere
Support Band: Self Released