When writing about bands, I love it when a band has a catchy
name; it allows for all sorts of puns and general mucking about with words and
throwing in a metaphor that captures the essence of the band perfectly.
Trouble is, it’s become a bit clichéd.
So here we have the awesomely named Hello Lazarus, who are
crying out for some smart remark about rolling away the stone and bringing rock
and roll back to life, and I can’t do it. I can’t fall prey to cliché.
Anyway, if you’re here, I’m pretty sure you’re far more
interested in the music than my struggles with puns. Without further ado, this
is what you need to know about Hello Lazarus. A three piece band hailing from
our fair neck of the woods – the wild lands known as the South West of England
– Hello Lazarus have some serious talent on display, with a sound that is
firmly established on the grandiose side of alternative rock. Their debut EP All Alliterations garnered them critical
acclaim and numerous quotes and taglines along the lines of “ones to watch.”
Their new self titled EP has just been released and a tour promoting it has
just been completed, culminating in a great night in Islington, London.
So far, only the one track from their new EP has been
released into the internet at large, but if this is indicative of the band’s
work as a whole, it can easily be seen why these guys are gathering momentum
and fans at a rapid pace. The track is called X
Marks, and ends up becoming possibly one of the most epic sounding
alternative rock anthems I’ve heard, like someone took the best elements of
Biffy Clyro, Wires, You Me At Six, fused it with the soul of a stadium rock
anthem, then turned it up to eleven; leave to simmer, before serving over a
number of tasty riffs.
To be honest, it’s hard to pick apart what makes this track
work for me. I particularly love the sense of scale through the shout out
vocals in the refrain “Where do we go from here?” that works fantastically with
that driving drum pattern that just attacks without mercy. It’s a curiously
schizophrenic song as well, in that the almost laid back melancholic guitar
riffs and patterns make us initially think the song is going in a completely
different direction. We don’t get a lot of direction from the vocals either,
which are fantastic but don’t offer any insight into the emotional state of the
song. Instead I think it’s the vocals that are the most impartial in the
confusion and turmoil between the anger of the drums, and the slightly less
angry and more melancholic guitars, and that line “Where do we go from here?”
is the underpinning of the entire song.
So, a fantastic song that is going to be stuck in my head
for a while. Listening to the EP sampler, it appears that the EP has more of
that driven rock style material which sounds like it could be a blast,
definitely going to check that out.
The only other song of Hello Lazarus I could find on the
‘net that wasn’t live was a track called Helping
Hands. A little bit older, and from their debut EP, it’s interesting to see
that evolution of the band that has already found quite a distinctive sound,
but are now refining it further. I prefer X
Marks, but I would recommend checking out this one too, as it’s in a very
similar vein – driving rhythm, epic sounding, possibly a lot more reverb, and a
bit of an odd ending.
Hello Lazarus may have just finished a tour of the UK, but they're back on stage in the South West very shortly (no rest for the wicked!) with gigs upcoming in Bristol and Swindon over the end of April/start of May. If you're interested in heading out to see them, something I'd fully recommend, full details of their gigs can be found online at their homepage!
Review by Paul Barnes
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