London Camden Barfly @ The Monarch the date: Mon 5th Nov 2001

Quick! Get in the Barfly, away from this screenplay in my head! And who better to greet me than Sony’s recent signing, who’re bound to pop up in a certain publication’s ‘bright new things’ aside a big advert for halomusic.com. They’re called HALO and they’re hoped to slot neatly into the same folder as The Smashing Pumpkins, Muse and Feeder mp3s. They sound just like any other band who have listened to too much Tool, but they attempt to rise out of nihilism, into the stratosphere of mass appeal. This is because they have huge hooks. They have big syrupy harmonies. They have a bassist who jumps around like he’s in a nu-metal video, juxtaposed to a fragile guitarist, flicking his hair out of his mascara. They even have a super skinny singer with a shaved head, every so often seeming to nod at his God Corgan, or perhaps not. What is clear though, is that they’re not quite touching people in the way they should be. Big emotional songs have to be played like the band are imploding inside themselves, being held on their feet by their hearts; pumped full of anger, adrenaline and - if they really wanna have a trendy triple-A image – amphetamines, as they frantically force themselves beyond their capabilities. Why didn’t they do that? Why did the lead singer look like the new boy in class, with the whites of his eyes reliving a day when all his mum’s mugs smashed into their sink? And why did the lead guitarist remember halfway through a soaring falsetto to back his band mate up? Arrogance? Over-Indulgence? Urmmm…Nerves?

The problem tonight isn’t Halo, because they have the songs, clearly caught on their debut EP, which you can get for free from their website. Tonight’s problem is the music industry looking for products that fit neatly into a marketing bracket. The band shouldn’t be playing hyped gigs where people (cynical journos included) are expecting all their teeth to be knocked out by their jaw cracking on the floor. This is especially a problem if they’re after the libidos of 16-year-old girls to shift units, and they need the media to spread the word. Mr.Corporate.Inc should take a step back, give the band a chance to develop, gain confidence in their songs so that the entire band is bouncing in time to basslines like they’re mimicking the mosh pit a few feet away from them. There wasn’t a pit tonight by the way...

If tonight was perfect, I would have pictured “the angels in her eyes”, I would have felt the quivering of the singers lips run through my body as he counterclaims “you can’t see me, I’m already gone, my silence echoes on and on”. I wasn’t even at the same party where he declared “I break, through your skin, a hole enough to let me in. I ride, through your veins and try to make it to your brain”, I couldn’t even picture his muse, but I could hear people muttering that they sound a bit like them.

In conclusion, this was not an accomplished band shooting silver bullets, slaying my anticipation and burning me in the fires of their passion whilst they ignite memories of loves, now gone… Come on!

taken from drownedinsound.com



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