“If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour… you’re gonna see some serious shit.”
Doc Brown, awesome though thou art, I think you must have forgotten to carry the one, for this album does not produce the 1.21 gigawatts required to get me banging my head with enough force to cause brain damage, which naturally leaves one seeing some serious shit – the mark of a great album.
The journey begins with ‘From Dusk ’til Dawn’, a delicate, distortionless instrumental that gradually builds, like the rising of the sun, as we prepare to hit the road with Attica Rage’s biker rock ‘n’ metal brand of noise. I can’t deny, the following track, ‘Beyond Forever’, resulted in some involuntary head-banging. Unfortunately though, there just isn’t enough on offer to keep it interesting for most of the album. More than half of the songs are over four minutes long, relying on one or two good, crunchy riffs and some fairly decent solos to carry it between sections of what could be termed ‘standard rhythm’.
The pace drops significantly at the midway point, with ‘Long Ride Home’. The combination of whining lead guitar and acoustic snooze is a waste of five-and-half-minutes. Thankfully, ‘Killer Carousel’ comes to the rescue. It’s definitely the most chugging song on the album, although I don’t much care for the chorus, which I feel highlights the shortcomings of the vocals. It has to be said, the vocals are something of a weak point throughout. Being fairly deep, they work best at raging moments of raspy shoutiness, but for clean, melodic singing, it simply lacks quality.
The hard-rocking title track does allude to time travel, but sadly is not an all out tribute to Back To The Future. ‘Aftershow’ is enjoyably rowdy; there is even a belch towards the end. While this is something I approve of, it was a poor effort, especially for a Glaswegian! Nearing the end, and along comes a pretty kick-ass track, ‘In Concert With the Mirror’. You’d expect it to be, given that they first recorded this song in 2005 for an EP of the same name, and have had all the time since then to tinker with it. But then the massively suck-ass ‘End Of An Era’ comes along to close the album. Unlike the opening instrumental, there is some attempt at rocking, but not much. I understand what they’re going for, winding it down as we arrive at our destination, but I’d have preferred a balls out, drunken, full-throttle smash into a brick wall, with maybe a few seconds of sombre calmness to collect the pieces of shattered skull. To each his own, I suppose. The song ends with the promise, “It’s the end of an era, but the best is yet to come.” I hope that is true, because it would be disappointing if this is the best they have to offer.
Tom Orchard-Webb
