Review of Black Holes Single by Burn The Fleet

'Burn The Fleet and ruin France? That were worse than fifty Hogues!'

A 19th Century Robert Browning poem may be an unusual source of inspiration from which an Alternative/Rock, Post Hard-core band have chosen to take their name. (Even though It was apparently a poem for older boys!) Perhaps that's because they didn't! Maybe they chose it in celebration and homage to the song of the same name by California rockers Thrice, who knows. (The latter maybe more likely, although, Browning was a recorded artist and his mother by all accounts an accomplished musician) Enough of my digressions......

Burn The Fleet follow up their 2009 debut EP, Mistresses, with a new song, Black Holes, released to accompany a modest tour starting in late September. The four piece from the home of B&Q and The Saints, as well as disembarkation point of choice for many a silvery haired lathario hoping to find his, and maybe someone else's, sea legs upon a twilight years cruise are not exactly immersed in a musical melting pot. Its been a long while since Craig David took Britain by storm! (And even longer since Howard Jones vied for bedroom wall poster space with Nik Kershaw).

Burn The Fleet Black Holes Single


Andrew, James, Jack and Dan are hoping that their 'tight riffage and socially conscious lyrics' can capture the imagination, and this time around, 'showcase a more refined edge to their songwriting.' Having been embraced by the gothic typeface press of Kerrang and Metal Hammer, even making MH's recent cover CD, the Hampshire boys are gaining an ever growing audience, both through radio airplay and incendiary live performances. Billed as 'one of those rare bands that remind you why music is so great' they are not about to make a quiet and reserved auditory entrance.

Black Holes is a 'plea to embrace the people and the world around you' and is clearly delivered with a passion that suggests that the band have the courage of their convictions. Starting off quite unassumingly with an off set rhythm pattern that only comes together completely to herald the first chorus, Black Holes is a jigsaw like composition of multifaceted parts which all slot into place and achieve complete coherence in the last third of the song. The pneumatic guitar riffs are delivered like an automatic weapon unleashed with delirious abandonment to accompany the thunderous bass line. Over layered vocal harmonies help to give the song balance as it builds to its climactic finale.

Whilst not sounding like them, Burn The Fleet have taken elements from Pearl Jam, Linkin Park and even The Manic Street Preachers to produce an individual cacophony of potent sounds that fuse together with intensity. Burn The Fleet are Southampton's Armada, replete with an arsenal of aural ammunition capable of setting any venue alight. Catch them while they're hot!

Andrew Lockwood.


Site - http://www.myspace.com/burnthefleetband

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