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Review: 'Filthy Tongues, The'
'Jacobs Ladder'   

-  Album: 'Jacobs Ladder' -  Label: 'Neon Tetra Records'
-  Genre: 'Rock' -  Release Date: '27th May 2016'

Our Rating:
You often hear of bands being big in Japan, and it’s often the case that bands are bigger outside of their home territory, with a lot of alternative UK bands in particular having vast followings in mainland Europe. But Scotland has a way of embracing its own. And so it is that bands like Goodbye Mr MacKenzie, Deacon Blue, Big Country, Aztgec Camera and Runrig were, and remain, big in Scotland. Edinburgh’s The Filthy Tongues is Martin Metcalfe, Fin Wilson and Derek Kelly, formerly of Goodbye Mr MacKenzie, the band who discovered Shirley Manson.

Since Manson’s departure, the trio have released two albums as Isa & the Filthy Tongues, with American-born Stacey Chavis fronting the band, earning airplay on 6 Music. Yet they remain very much an Edinburgh band, with former Skids frontman Richard Jobson featuring their music in his film ‘New Town Killers’. However, stripped to their bare bones, the three players offer up an album that could see them reach an audience as keen south of the border and beyond.

The title track kicks off with a tense chug as Metcalfe spits gritty lyrics intimating biblical doom. It’s a dark, apocalyptic, stomping chug that’s reminiscent of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and The Screaming Blue Messiahs in equal measure, and it’s a strong start which paves the way for some taut, dark musical moments on what is undeniably a strong album. ‘High’ combines the swampy psychedelia of The Doors with the mania of early Gallon Drunk and a dash of Jesus and Marry Chain.

‘Holy Brothers’ sees the band slip into string-bolstered anthemic Scottish rock mode, Metcalfe’s accent coming through in his gravelly tones. There are a handful of predictable, mid-pace plodders, and it’s when they get fiery, as on the sneering post-punk of ‘Long Time Dead’, sung through gritted teeth, and the dark country of ‘Children of the Filthy’ that Filthy Tongues excel.

The Filthy Tongues Online

  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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Filthy Tongues, The - Jacobs Ladder