It’s been a strange 18 months for everyone, the lack of live music has knocked all  us music fans sideways. Looking back I started going to gigs at the age of 14 and don’t think I’d gone a month at most without seeing someone somewhere in the country. Couple that with Artists struggling to get vinyl pressed, and you’d think in this Tory led new world order, our Boris would have got all he ever wanted a populace without guidance, lost and looking for some respite.

Now as we step gingerly out into this new normal of Lateral flow testing, temporary restrictions and venue numbers up and down like yo yo’s depending on muddied guidance and the latest risk assessment, its great to see the chinks of light coming through, and some blinding new releases coming forward starting with this one From Ferocious Dog aptly titled “The Hope”.

I’ve caught Ferocious dog live a few times, usually standing in the shadows of the Levellers, last time being on the Anniversary of the classic Levelling the Land LP, and in fairness, they knocked me sideways, more of an edge than the Levellers, more to say and everything coming from a punk led heart.

With “The Hope they have stepped right out of that shadow, and what screams at you is a band hitting their stride. There are a number of tracks here, that just stop you dead, you just have to listen!! First single from the LP “Pentrich Rising” hammers home how powerful a live standard this is going to be, while “Victims” spirals inwards drawing you in, on point and right on the button. While next up “Broken Soldier”, hits you full in the face, lyrically superb, with The Taliban introduction sample as apt for present times as anything I’ve ever heard, coupled with the damage done within modern warfare.

This light and dark shades are present throughout but when there’s a message, a nod of knowing its tracks like “Khatyn” that hit the hardest, (look up the Khatyn massacre). As the LP moves through these stages of Dark and Light, what stands out is a band that are confident, not to these ears drawing comparisons to The Levellers or New Model Army anymore, this is one dog that is really starting to bare its teeth, a band for now as the music scene begins to re-awaken, relevant, in your face and kicking against the Lethargy induced by a Tory government and the Tim Martins of the world. “Punk Police” tears out of the speakers, guitar led, followed out of the traps by “Slayed the traveller” Closer “Parting Glass” invokes the Pogues at their peak, you can almost see Shane MacGowan, draped around the microphone, but it definitely beats its own Gallic Drum, with a very different vocalist.

One of the LP’s of the year so far.

Buy Here

Author: Nev Brooks