Amongst Liars – Amongst Liars
Release Date: 8th July 2022
Label: Earache Records
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Genre: Modern Rock
FFO: Queens of the Stone Age, Royal Blood, Biffy Clyro, Shinedown, Audioslave, RATM.
Review By: Paul Franklin
1993. Blur announce that Modern Life is Rubbish. Nearly thirty years later and with the issues tackled on their self-titled debut, “abuse and bullying, war mongering for financial gain, poverty, greed, fake news, unjust and deceitful political misgivings, election fraud, human rights abuses and climate change concerns”, it be hard to argue that South Coast collective Amongst Liars think any different.
However, had they chosen that title, there may have been a “but…” added on the end, as by channelling their dissatisfaction into something more positive, the band have delivered a collection of empowering ‘call-to-arms’ anthems that lob the big riffs of early Royal Blood into the dynamically political mosh pit of RATM.
The manifesto of empowerment and taking back control from the “abusers, politicians and general wrong doers” is writ large from the start as the angular Cut It, gets unapologetically up close and confrontational.
Like a bank vault door smothered in Semtex, Money bursts open with a massive Morello-esque riff into a full-throated protest song, with vocalist Ian George attacking the inequality of wealth with cries of “We won’t take this anymore” and the repeating end refrain of “We pray for the young!”
A couple of the tracks introduce a note of melancholia, Drown is the ‘ballad’ that emphasises the importance of taking our own mental wellbeing into consideration during tumultuous times. Whilst, new single Reign takes a little darker path, building a bedrock of anticipation before dropping the hammer for the final third.
Burn The Vision, Tick The Box and Over and Over highlight that Amongst Liars’ strength lies in infusing the aggression with melody and Velcro-like choruses. The latter in particular being a stand-out.
Final track, Without Grace is an eclectic waltz between a heavy buzzing bass line and a twanging, shrill guitar, that, if you were being picky, could possibly lose a minute or so from its instrumental middle section.
The general shit state of the world in the years following their formation in 2020 provided Amongst Liars with plenty of inspiration for their debut. Switch on the news today, and you suspect that they won’t be short of material for the follow-up. Every cloud…!
(4 / 5)
