If you've any idea of the city's heritage and culture you'll know people do things differently in Liverpool. I'm not talking about The Beatles or any of that. I'm talking about a peculiarly individualistic streak and the fact that the city's coolest bands from The La's to The Boo Radleys and The Coral have always followed their own agendas and damned the soddin' torpedoes. For better or worse.
La's/ Onset founder member Mike Badger has previously asserted that “if you throw a stone anywhere in Liverpool, the chances are you'll hit someone playing guitar in a band.” Wise words indeed and very true. The chances are that that same person playing guitar in a band is into the coolest of cultural touchstones and they'll probably big up the likes of equally individualistic talents like Arthur Lee & Love, Captain Beefheart and Roky Erickson should you push them on their influences.
Bearing all this in mind, it's hard to believe that a band like SOUND OF GUNS could be lurking in the sonic undergrowth on Merseyside. Fucking hell, I'm certainly not hearing any such quirky, psychedelic-tinged shenanigans here. This quintet's début album 'What Came From Fire' is BIG. I'm talking BIG as in U2 at their most stadium-straddling or Editors at their most wide-screen. Throw in a squadron of Stukas and a couple of Russian battleships and you've got the idea. This is cosmos-bothering stuff and it's not going to be content with a low-key mini-tour of small arts centres to celebrate its' release into the wider world, thank yer very much.
And, while it's anything but what I'd expect from a Liverpool band or the sort of thing I'd especially go looking for as a rule, I must confess that its' sheer scope and power is enough to comprehensively blow my preconceptions away.
New single 'Architects' gives you a good idea of what to expect. Driven along by leather-lunged vocals and cascading guitars,it's enough to make Editors sound like Pinky & Perky and very effectively sets the tone. It's followed by a slew of equally convincing slabs of primary colour Rock (the capitol 'R' is essential) such as 'My White Noise', 'Elementary of Youth' and 'Alcatraz': this latter featuring a massed chorus of “you walked away, don't walk away!” which simply screams to be hollered back at the band in the biggest of fields on the festival circuit.
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So it's anthemic choruses and power chords a go-go in the main here, but there's also the occasional deviation to intrigue. 'Collisions' sports chugging, angular guitars before reining it in for the requisite fist-punching chorus. '106 (Still The Words)' is built around a Celtic-tinged keyboard swirl and tribal drums and gives frontman Andy the chance to actually sing instead of just roaring. Both are impressive, though the most ambitious sonic light and shade seeps through 'Lightspeed' which is utterly drenched in atmosphere and even gives bassist John the chance to indulge in some funky, four-string lunges.
They time it to perfection, signing off with the compulsory sombre and slow-burning grandstand finish courtesy of 'Starts With An End', but by then they've long since clubbed me into submission anyway. With 'What Came From Fire', Sound of Guns have put The Big Music slap bang in centre stage all over again. The ambition they display here suggests they'll not relinquish the spotlight in a hurry either.
Sound of Guns on Myspace
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