Long running London ska punk band Lead Shot Hazard are gearing up for the release of their debut album on August 25th. Titled Fires To Find Our Friends, it features twelve brand new songs from the West London based six-piece. Lead Shot Hazard have become a fixture in the UK DIY ska punk scene since their formation in 2011. It seems as if it's been a bit of a bumpy road to get to where they are today, with a number of line up changes, but now they seem settled and ready to take the next steps as a band. I was fortunate to have a bit of a preview of some of the songs from Fires To Find Our Friends at Level Up Festival in July and this really wet my appetite for what I think could be Lead Shot Hazard's best release to date.
Jokers, Then Kings & Queens opens the album in a big way. The three part horn explosion from Eve Crabb (saxophone), Jess Pook (saxophone) and Abi Harrison (trombone) really makes the song sound huge before it even really gets started. When the vocals come in from bass player Dave Collis I'm quickly reminded of Jake from Capdown, there's a great amount of attitude here. Something that really sets Lead Shot Hazard apart from many of their contemporaries is their use of two main vocalists and when guitarist Tom Crabb adds his vocals during the track the intensity is really upped. The second track is titled Chase This Down. Again, this track opens with some divine horn lines that will get you skanking very quickly. It's an upbeat, positive song about going after your dreams before it's too late. The energy in the song is superb. Different vocals spread throughout the track with gang vocals being a particular highlight. Hacky Sack? Let's Have A Rebellion begins with some crunching guitar and bass before switching things up, LSH instantly getting you to get those knees up with a bouncy ska riff. The song is about the confusion and frustration surrounding Brexit and the complete mess it's made of the UK. The section in the song where the whole band sing "whoa-oh, let's have a rebellion" over and over again is certainly going to receive a big reaction from a live crowd.
Off Beat On starts out as a more summery ska punk song that will quickly have you smiling along. The horns give it so much energy at the start before the vocals come in. The whole track is delivered in a fun and bouncy style that you would expect from great ska punk music. As the track progresses, the tempo gradually picks up which builds up the energy more and more and eventually finishes as more of a fast paced punk track than a ska number. There's a few nice mentions of various bands in the scene spread throughout the song that really kept my attention as I was trying to find them all. The fifth song is named Red/Blue/Black and is about the media spinning the public all manner of lies no matter their political alignment. This is a bit of a protest song, telling the listener that the time has come to end this and we need to somehow make a change. Gone is the upbeat sound that I've become accustomed to, instead we have a more serious tone. This more serious tone continues on When The Daylight Ends. The tempo is dropped considerably on this song, showing a side of Lead Shot Hazard that you don't often see. It's a song about dealing with grief and hiding your emotions. It's quite a sad song but extremely moving. I can see it being one that a lot of people will relate to. I was also really impressed with horns on the song. Normally they add the energy and generally make a song seem happier but on When The Daylight Ends this isn't the case as they add a great deal of emotion and mood to the track.
The Best Horse Doesn't Win This Race is another slower Lead Shot Hazard tune. It feels extremely retrospective as they look at how things that happened in the past affect them today. The song builds as it progresses with the inclusion of gang vocals and harmonies, including some exquisite ones during the song’s finale that I can't wait to witness live. They're pretty special. The eighth song Rinse, Repeat is one of Fires To Find Our Friends catchiest songs. I loved how the band all slowly join in at the beginning with the bass, then guitar, then drums and finally the horns getting involved and playing along to the same riff. It almost sounds as if Lead Shot Hazard are just jamming together as they reminisce about old times. The old times that they are talking about on this occasion are those times when you were younger and you would party harder than you wanted to just to fit in. Ultimately I think it's a song about realising how important the friendships and relationships you made in your youth are to you now. Braggin' Rights was one of the stand out tracks on my first listen of the album. Combining a carnival style ska with some straight punk rock – it's a high octane ride that will leave you feeling breathless. This is one of those songs that will have you skanking one second and then moshing like your life depends on it the next. Zandro Morreale really impresses on the final stretch on the song with some superb drumming that wouldn't be out of place on a metal album.
Track number ten is about the me, me, me culture that litters much of the first world. Titled The Self-Obsessed this is Fires To Find Our Friends’ The Science Of Selling Yourself Short. It's a slower, poppier ska tune that will get a crowd swaying and singing along passionately. To add to the sing-along nature of the song, some lovely "whoa-ohs" are harmonised during the song’s big ending. The horns grow and grow, adding lots of life to the song’s final section. The penultimate song is Move Your Mouth! Lead Shot Hazard pick the tempo back up here, those wonderful horns giving the track a big introduction. Tom and Dave do a nice job trading lines in the opening verse, really giving the song a whole load of energy. This is one of my favourite things that bands with two lead singers can do. The vocal trade off always sounds so cool to me. When we reach the halfway point of the song, there's a bit of a breakdown/spoken word section that leads into some more superb horn work. As this album has gone on, I've come to the conclusion that Lead Shot Hazard may have one of the best horn sections in the ska scene currently. They bring so much to every song. Last up is Between Hell And High Water. Doing that thing that all final album songs should do, it sounds huge. It builds and builds as the song goes on and completely sweeps you away in the song. Those gang vocal "whoa-ohs" that turn into some harmonies on the song’s final stretch are another that will get a massive crowd reaction and the intense shouting of "we light fires to find our friends" ensures that the album finishes in some style.
Fires To Find Our Friends was a long time in the making but it is definitely worth the wait. During the past year or two, so many of the UK's DIY ska punk bands have really stepped up and put out some superb albums. Fires To Find Our Friends can easily be spoken about alongside some of the other great ska punk albums of the last few years.
Preview two songs from the album here: https://crabshackrecords.bandcamp.com/album/fires-to-find-our-friends-promo
Like Lead Shot Hazard here: https://www.facebook.com/LeadShotHazard/
This review was written by Colin Clark.
No comments:
Post a Comment