|
Fears raised by last year’s Natural Compression EP that Weta were evolving into the adopted sons of Shihad are well and truly displeeld by this throat-grabbing killer of a debut album. Produced by Steve James, a man who's worked with legendary adrenalin guitar rock/punk bands like the Sex Pistols, the Clash and Jam, he's managed to imbue that same sense of guitar blood-rush to the nerve ends into Aaron Tokona's mighty fine repertoire of songs.
The first four tunes scarcely take the foot off your throat with 'Let It Go' being propelled by the twin geetars of Tokona and Gabriel Atkinson, before leading into the dynamic-building intensity of 'Calling On', then shiftinh to the slow-burning title track and the insistence of 'If I Will I Can'. The pressure drops for 'Sweet Surrender' and 'Conversations', but these are good songs from what Tokona refers to as Weta's "tender side". In a different kitchen, the Costello-ish lurches of 'Snapshot', the surging blues designs of 'Hole' and the assertive finale, 'Missed Again', round off an album that's impressive enough to rival svengali-colleague Toogood and company's The General Electric. Melodic power surge, anyone?
-George Kay |
|