All The Saints – Fire On Corridor X

There are often two sides to a musical coin. For every shoegaze band promising wishy-washy ethereal waves of continual loveliness, there would be the muddy flipside, bands like Loop and Spacemen 3 who were more content to pile on grubby layers of brutally heavy guitar to hammer home their message. All the Saints are drawn to the dark side, with a distortion heavy sound that harkens back to the scuzzy, slightly sordid sound of the mighty Thee Hypnotics. There is also a grungy element as well, the sonic sludge of Dinosaur Jnr with a more tuneful ear.

Opening number ‘Shadow, Shadow' with its gentle throbs of guitar is no real indication of the maelstrom that lies ahead of the listener. The opener clatter of drums on ‘Sheffield' plunge you headfirst into a dark, thick and chocolaty guitar sound, thrumming and strumming. ‘Farmacia' continues this theme, with its ascending melody line and frenzied rhythm track. The production is reverb heavy, and as muddy as a bell-bottom at Glastonbury, dragging the songs down. ‘Hornett' sounds weighed down in its own self-importance, long and ponderous, redeemed by the powerful surge of ‘Papering Fix'.

The highlight is almost certainly ‘Regal Regalia', dirt spattered guitars staying the right side of melancholy. The title track though is also pretty impressive, a requiem of soiled harmonies and crashing drums. This Alabama-born, Atlantic-based band have made an impressive debut here. Occasionally it descends into sludge but manages to retain enough warmth and vigour to rekindle the faith any devoted distortion aficionado.
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