Album Review

Glamour Of The Kill – Savages

• 23rd Sep 2013

‘Glamour of the Kill’ return with their second album Savages, available in the UK on September 23rd.

Hailing from York, the band have been well accepted by critics and little by little have forced their way into the hectic and unforgiving world of Rock – when you listen to this album you might know why.

The first track, Savage, opens the album in an energetic way with a mixture of thrashing riffs, wailing blues-rock lead guitar and heartrending vocals, following up with Second Chance, which bizarrely kicks off with a less-than-amazing punk-pop chant, followed by a little of the classic boring punk drums. Despite being wholly uninspiring, the song surprises us towards the end with one of the best –albeit briefest- guitar solos of the album.

A Freak Like Me is an amusingly over-the-top song, starting with some sort of power metal intro and ends up being something vaguely reminiscent of the cheesier metal songs from the 80’s (which is not entirely a bad thing), unfortunately punctuated by a repeat of the uninteresting punk drumming style. Overall though, the song just shows that these guys are not afraid to try new things and mix up the formulas for their song.

Tears of the Sun has a mournful classic rock intro that progresses into the album’s only ballad, which sounds notably similar to Black-era Metallica. This song gives to Savages the dynamic and contrast which are much needed by this point.

The closing song has a gloriously macho yet obscenely uninventive title: Welcome To Hell. Starting with a distorted speech backed by the wailing sounds of some sort of Demon-doll from the putrescent swamp of 80s horror B-movies, it quickly progresses to classic rock, leads you to think they’re actually finishing with some sort of heavy metal piece, then changes to a thrash metal feel -once again soured by the punk drumming- and finally gets back on track with a little added flavour from the piano and a shredding guitar solo.

While not the most amazing album of recent times, Glamour of the Kill have managed to make something interesting to listen to. Maybe one of the most recognizable things about their sound is that they try their hand at a slew of different genres such as thrash metal, punk and heavy metal, even being adventurous enough as to mix them into one song. While this may mean that the album is not to everyone’s taste, it definitely makes it worth checking out.

– Imya Nayto

Venue: Savages
Support Band: Steamhammer/SPV