Howling Bells - Into The Chaos Album Review

Review of Howling Bells album 'Into The Chaos' released through Independiente.

The jury is out on 'Into The Chaos'. One half of the jury have declared it a stupendous number, tugging all the right heartstrings in all the right places. The other half can't help but have mildly nightmarish flashbacks to the mid-1990s.

The production and the manic strings hark back to 1996, a time when indie and mainstream were essentially the same thing and we no longer understood what either of them meant anymore and we didn't care half as much about John Peel as we do now he's gone. The chorus seems to be begging for an TV advert soundtrack slot, or at least wants to be acknowledged as being nearly as good as Catatonia. Either that, or it's trying its luck for the next Bond tune, with Jaunita Stein purring her way through the smooth guitars and licking her lips about nights on the town and tripping over the edge into insanity. Either way, it's a belter. Of sorts.

Hayley Avron