Review by Brian McGowan
Release date: 25 March 2014
Cast in the same melodic hard rock mould as recent upstarts, Glyder, Temperance Movement and The Treatment, Cage The Gods look set to usurp the current order. Badlands is their entry level album and it’s brimful of slick, resilient – and eminently tuneful – cranked up hard rock.
There are clear, loudly sounding echoes of their influences – Bad Company, Aerosmith, Tesla – in the music, but moreso in the fact that like those bands, the songs are constructed on the foundation stone of great songwriting. This album just bristles with big, spiky rock songs, like ‘The Ending’ and ‘Sacrifice’. Frontman Peter Comerford’s voice is an electrifying presence, spilling out high voltage vocals that resonate with conviction and authority. They are amply matched by Jam Moncur’s amped up axework, one moment fierce, fiery, the next reflective, frequently concealing melodic subtleties that only become apparent on repeated listenings.
The first six tracks are all top notch rock songs, from the raucous, sprawling ‘Favourite Sin’ to the immense, balladic ‘Falling’, intense, wholehearted, recalling Rankin era Gun. There’s an almost indiscernible drop in standard thereafter, only because the band lean a little too heavily on formula. Even then, tracks like the provocative ‘A Thousand Times’ and the pulsating ‘From The Start’ have their head in the stars.
The future – and all the rapid fire, tech driven change that goes with it – keeps coming down the road at an alarming pace, so for everyone whose memories of the classic rock era keep disappearing fast in the rear view mirror, Cage The Gods are the band for you. Badlands is performed with preternatural confidence . . . an amazing debut indeed. A band with their eyes on the prize, and judging by this, their aim is true.
8 out of 10
Track Listing:
- Favourite Sin
- The Ending
- Sacrfice
- Badlands
- Trouble Reigns
- Bruce Willis
- Falling
- A Thousand Times
- One More Taste
- What’s Left Of Me
- Promises
- From The Start
