Album Review

Mojo Fury – Visiting Hours of a Travelling Circus

• 29th Mar 2011

Post –hardcore, yes the term that seems to be associated with bands such as 65 Days of Static and… erm…yes. Whilst it’s an exaggeration that 65 Days are the only band putting a blitzkrieg into that genre, they’re certainly the most associated with it. With this, comes a large weight for any band following the same pathway to hold on their shoulders, and indeed that task is certainly passed onto Ireland’s Mojo Fury. They’re an interesting band really. Just the name conjures up images of perhaps Shaft causing havoc through a New York strip bar somewhere, laying waste to everything before him. They’ve even toured with Two Door Cinema Club too, a bit like Will Young touring with Pearl Jam.

But unlike Two Door, what VHOATC does is deliver an onslaught of visceral tensions and hammering adrenaline. Immediately, you’re greeted with a sucker punch of shrieking guitars and pounding violence via ‘The Mann’ that does what it says on the tin, sticking it to the “mann.” It forces itself to carry on, even if you can’t (‘Deep Fish Tank’,’Pill Pigeon is an Orange Wheel.’). Elsewhere the skipping rhythms of ‘Bones’ are halted by the ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ piano progressions before the apocalypse hits. That would be far too serious right? Not the case as it is followed by ‘Colour of the Bear,’ a fun blip of wobbling synths and bass lines and ‘We Should Just Run Away,’ which sounds like Muse joining an industrial circus as their head sideshow. But just as you think its all rage and screams, they show that they have a softer side to them. ‘What A Secret’ is a slightly ethereal lament, in which amongst spacey guitars, Michael Mormecha weeps: “There is a problem and it’s that you don’t listen.” Angry music that’s not one dimensional.

7/10