The scene in Rouen (Normandy) presents two particularities : first, considering this is an average-size city (notice that I didn't write "town" as there's a wonderful Cathedral there !) it has one of the most active scene in France, with quality bands like Ataraxie, Fatum Elisum, Pin-Up Went Down, Mhönos for the recently most active and closely related to underground METAL, and second, all those bands have a style of their own... And now I can add with pleasure YUCK to this list !!! I'm sure that some did it for quite some time, as this quatuor is a long-existing (10 years) band and has yet released a first album, before the sophomore "this one is good" that came out in October this year through Postghost recordings.
I already said it and it's nothing original, certainly just like most of you, but I love it when a band mixes successfully different METAL styles, almost whichever ones it could be... Although the overall is fairly homogeneous and original, one of the main quality of YUCK is their unpredictability in the songs sequence and even in the various structures inside of these songs (most of them)...
Just for example, no need to go far in the list, take the first song "legacy" : it starts on a ferocious high-tempo, breathing the same filthy and cold air of some northern BLACK METAL legends, then in the middle of the song the tempo slows down considerably, just like the vocals loose more than sligthly their hateful and filthy accents, the whole outstandingly eyeing on GRUNGE during a long minute, to finally end as it started with fullforce heaviness...
Second song is "I will not close my eyes", it starts then on a harsh THRASHy tempo, lots of power and rawness here; the Blackened edge comes back again, just followed by some SABBATISH notes and brilliant leads (another characteristic to be mentioned), it then ends again on this straightforward Thrash riffing... unpredictable but delightful !
From the 3rd song, in my opinion, two influences become a little more obvious : MOTÖRHEAD mainly and VOIVOD ("nocturne"), not just with the Lemmy-like type of vocals but with a strong Thrash'n roll riffing, pretty warm in the spirit but refreshing in the interpretation. I usually don't like to describe too much song by song, but another one is the languishing "to redemption" which ends on a grungey tone the album, the vocals are here Cobainesque and proove definitely that the vocalist, even if maybe a bit perfectible sometimes in his accent, has that little something which catch you up with a nice whiskey-fueled emotive performance.
This diversity in warm heaviness, regularly filthy, almost always extremely heavy and finally constantly wild and authentic, added to a solid and skilled musicianship make this album a WORTHY discovery, so go now on Bandcamp and LIKE them, plus go now on FB and download the album digitally or buy it physically, oh shit wasn'it the contrary ??? Go on both sites and make your business, I just ask you one thing : SUPPORT them !!!
One cool thing is that they'll be soon playing in Rennes as support of the almighty STANGALA for the release party of their new album, thanx to Antoine "Time to Blast", great gig for sure :-)
http://postghost.bandcamp.com/album/yuck-this-one-is-good-pg004
https://www.facebook.com/yuckvork?sk=wall
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Time-To-Blast/153835526077
Thanks a lot dude :)
ReplyDeleteyou can listen "This one is Good" (Oct. 2011) here :
http://postghost.bandcamp.com/album/yuck-this-one-is-good-pg004
you can listen "Do it yourself" (first album June 2009) here :
http://postghost.bandcamp.com/album/yuck-do-it-yourself-lp-pg002
That band Kills we'd love to get your opinions...