Skarlett Riot – Invicta
Release Date: 7th May 2021
Label: Despotz Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Metal, Alt-metal, Metalcore.
FFO: Bullet for my Valentine, Asking Alexandria, In this Moment.
Review By: Jonathon Hopper
In pre-internet days when attention spans were longer than a, y’know, super long thing, and a career in the music industry could build with almost glacial slowness, it used to be a truism that – having survived the machinations of the notoriously ‘difficult’ second album – the third album was a chance to propel a hitherto small-time artist to the big time.
If you don’t believe me, may I present Bon Jovi’s ‘Slippery When Wet’, Green Day’s ‘Dookie’, and even ‘Masters of Puppets’.
Now, just to get one thing straight no one’s suggesting that Scunthorpe’s Skarlett Riot are destined to headline Download, sell out stadiums, or show up with an extravagantly bouncy bouffant planted on top of their heads anytime soon, but there’s little doubt that third album Invicta is a huge step forward for the four-piece.
Not that they were exactly bad before (on 2017’s ‘Regeneration’), it’s just that from the moment the first strains of pile driver opener Breaking the Habit set the scene you know this is the sound of a heavier, harder, more focussed Skarlett Riot.
Gravity follows, a bombastic howl into the void, the soaring vocals of singer Chloe ‘Skarlett’ Drinkwater engaged in a free-fall spiral towards oblivion with the gruff death growls of the dirty backing vox.
After what’s been an intense, difficult year for so many, you get a feeling that Invicta is an intensely personal release. Black Cloud tackles the prescient issue of depression, the emo-inflected Under Water – perhaps the most complex and finely crafted song on display – showcases a tender beating heart at the centre of all the bludgeon before giving way to a gorgeous hook of a chorus and a delicate string and keys outro.
Punching like a frenzied prize fighter one minute on the likes of single Stronger and Cut the Ties, delving the depths of human experience the next on the delicate acoustic Into Pieces, Invicta is an album of contrasts that still works as a cohesive whole.
The final word really ought to go to final track Human, a timely reminder of the similarities we all share set to a pulsating metalcore backdrop of gnashing guitars. “This is who I am/ I’m sentient like you/ I am only human”.
Whether their third album will propel them to the dizzying heights as the aforementioned acts is uncertain, and that’s probably a good thing. (I mean, how many versions of ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ does the World actually need??) What is certain, is that Skarlett Riot’s third album is one they can be rightfully proud of. A personal collection of finely crafted songs featuring some killer hooks that holds a mirror up to the times we live in and offers hope to the hopeless, humanity to the suffering. Give me that over ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’ any day.
(4 / 5)
