Savage Cut are a West Lothian based post punk band made up of Gaz Davis on Guitar, Brian Keirnan on Guitar, John Innes on Bass and Liam Innes on Drums. They have been likened to bands/groups like Mogwai and Killing Joke. For their track on this split single entitled ‘Madhouse Magical’ they collaborated with guest vocalist Bobby Deans to bring a unique sound to the track with his spoken word contributions. You can check out another time I reviewed Savage Cut by clicking this link.
New Zero God are Gothic/Post Punk group from Greece made up of Mike Pougounas on Vocals/Keyboards, Harris Stavrakas on Bass, Akis Nikolaidis on Guitar, Babis ‘BB Romeo’ Efthimiou on Drums/Programming and John Psimopoulos on Drums. Go ahead and check out this other time I reviewed New Zero God by clicking here. New Zero God’s track on this split singles was actually recorded specifically for this limited edition single.
‘Madhouse Magical’ was a little rough in my opinion, I do need to add that I did like the track. I liked the approach of going for a spoken word track, it’s not something you see every day, it was fresh and it kept my attention. However I found that the music overpowered the singing and made it hard to distinguish what was actually being said. It wasn’t a big issue and It didn’t impact my enjoyment of the song overall but I think that it detracted from the power and impact of having the singer do a spoken word track by covering his voice up with the music. Now I don’t want to seem too negative as I said I liked the song and on its own the music was top notch, it was sharp and the guitar made me picture something jagged, which I suppose fits with the name Savage Cut. Overall the song was good and it’s earned a place on my playlist. I would like to say before I move on that I really enjoyed the spoken word choice and I think it was a bold move by Savage Cut to go that route. It made the song something I’ll remember and definitely something I’ll go back and listen to again.
‘Redemption’ in contrast sounded a lot clearer, not better but there was a distinct difference in the style and presentation of both songs. This track seemed a lot more like a traditional rock song. I found myself singing along with this one, and I was quite glad that the random bits I kept mumbling to myself got stuck in a friends head as well. I think the best compliment I can give is that the song is contagious. There is a thing at about the 2:34 mark that I really like, I won’t ruin what they do but It’s a really powerful sound and it really makes you feel alive. Overall what I’d say about this song is that the pace lends itself really well to late night, last minute writing because it keeps you going with the energy and the build-up.
So that’s what I thought of ‘Madhouse Magical’ by Savage Cut and Redemption by New Zero God and you can listen to ‘Madhouse Magical’ by heading over to Soundcloud, unfortunately I was unable to find a direct and/or functioning link to New Zero God’s track, however you are able to purchase both tracks as a 7″ vinyl over at New Hellfire Club.
First Published on: https://www.newhellfireclub.co.uk
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