Mind Noise Network
Osmium Guillotine -
Osmium Guillotine
By Rob Dixon - 1 February 2015
It’s the early 90s, England have just been knocked out of the world cup at the Semi Final stage in a heart breaking penalty shootout, Nelson Mandela has finally been released after many years of protest and the Soviet Union is no more...Meanwhile, in dark Newcastle, a young boy approaching his teens is studying his Dads music collection in awe at the amount of vinyl along with the 15 shelves of cassettes that line the living room walls.
They say that music has the ability to take us to places and bring back memories that nothing else could. Listening to Osmium Guillotine's self-titled album has done exactly that to this 30 something metal fan.
The album opens with a short musical which then leads straight into old school 70s metal style guitar riffs of the track Martyrdom. The opening is reverbed to perfection, which leads into a darker sound that any true old school metal head loves and adores.
Then the lyrics come in……to say it’s not what you are expecting is an understatement. Those of us who listened to grungy punk rock (now there’s a mix of genres!!) in the mid to late 90s would probably equate the vocals of lead singer Pete Keliris to that of The Offspring frontman Dexter Holland.
Ironically, at this point if I was reading this as an outsider, I would probably not give the album a look in. Despite loving both sounds, mixing the 2 together sounds like a recipe for disaster!
HOWEVER!
This album just works. It is sufficiently old school with the combination of classic metal and punk, whilst not a new sound genre wise, it is still unlike anything I have heard before. This continues throughout and punky vocals at times relent to a more gothic metal sound with the track Blight upon Mankind. The standout song, Phobophobia, blends guitar riff upon guitar riff whilst pushing Keliris‘ vocals to the limit in a track which really showcases, not just the individual talents of each band member, but also how well they mix together. Whether it is the instrumental Breathe it in, Son or the humorous Hobgoblin each track brings with it something different.
Whilst it is early in 2015, for me this band are a brilliant discovery and topping the list of new band of the year. I look forward to charting their progress and hopefully catching a live show up in the North East. That young pre-teen in the early 90s would have been impressed!
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1/20
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