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Cumbrian lads TALLBOY are all about bringing the noise to their music. Their debut EP House Of Glass plunges into many a vein of alternative music, with absolute adrenaline and a real kick ass enthusiasm you can’t help but get on board for.
Insomnia is a blistering start, heavy drum and bass tearing straight into a junky bassline and a straining scream. Caught somewhere between THE CALLOUS DAOBOYS and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, there’s funky groove and hard thrash crammed into a delightfully off kilter punch on this opening track.
Quickly moving through to Snake, this pulls more into the groove metal side of their sound, before pummelling into the thick song-along chord. The reverb on the vocals seems a little misplaced, as it dilutes the overall impact of the pretty impressive range of styles Brad Crook’s capable of. He maybe pushes the boat a little too far out in the constant shift between screams and belting, with the latter sounding strained in some areas. The guitar channels well with a decently aggressive tone and intent, it’s just a shame that it almost feels like a demo because of the choice of effects on the vocals.
Yet more to the credit of Crook’s range, Name & Shame takes on a feel of Joe Duplanter, Randy Blythe and Corey Taylor. Genuinely, the way that TALLBOY approaches vocals seem to be a million miles an hour between styles, and when it works, it is gold. It’s a good tune with plenty of groove, a little more of a fun, accessible hook with a lovely build up to a pretty satisfying drop. Again, the mix could be a little better as the arpeggiated layer gets completely swamped by the end, but it’s only a minor gripe.
Unfortunately again, there’s more misplaced reverb on Ego Trip. The instrumentation on this one is a lot of fun, there’s spades of personality though out with snappy, thrashing drums, dirty wailing guitars and dissonant chords. There’s also plenty of great screams, it’s just a distraction to have them echoing all over the place.
Regrettably, while there’s plenty of very emotive points within the final song, especially the final third, Pressure Point just feels over bloated with ideas that aren’t mixed well. Initially there’s the super crisp start where every element is really easy to pick out, including a very tasty bassline, it branches into some lovely, complicated proggy moments. Unfortunately, what can be assumed to be maybe a harp- synth line comes in, I genuinely had to pause listening to see if there was some other music playing nearby, as it is so poorly integrated to the overall feel of the song. It clashes with the vocals; it diminishes the flow of the song and doesn’t add anything to make it feel a valuable addition to what TALLBOY are looking to achieve.
There is loads of potential here, with a vision to how well this clearly will translate to live shows, the choices in production are often what is pulling House Of Glass down. While sharp range and brimming with good ideas, the execution needs more refinement going forward to really push TALLBOY to the next level.
Rating: 6/10
House Of Glass is out now via Nouseo Records.
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