Russell HughesLoom – S/T (Silent Cult Records)
Genre: Alt. Rock
Are Loom part of a grunge revival, punk revival, 90s rock revival or simply doing their own thing? The beauty of S/T is that they could fall into all four categories – until you realise that they don’t want to be labelled into a particular genre and did everything as they thought it should be.
The band have exploded out of their bedroom like a teenager who has discovered drinking for the first time. From a self-recorded cassette featuring covers from The Jesus Lizard, Bad Brains, Pixies and more to support from Radio 1 and Zane Lowe, the three-piece have carried on the momentum into their debut album.
RECOMMENDED READING: ALBUM REVIEW – BLONDIE
Openers Lice and Hate feature strands of 90s grunge, while it’s easy to image the latter’s chorus line coming straight out of the mouth of Kurt Cobain while Salt has creeping undertones of a blues-ish infused guitar and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club vibe.
For a band to be so coherently versatile on their debut album is remarkable and Loom flit between genres like bored housewife flicks through daytime TV. Seasick and the second last song Barbed Wire changes the direction of the LP completely and could be taken out of post-punk architects IDLES or Cabbage’s new material with its anguish laden howls and frenzied, slight distorted guitar.
But just as you feel you’ve clocked the feel of the album and the direction it’s going in Loom spring another surprise by going back to sound they opened up with on Bleed On Me, before throwing the stoner rock infused Nailbender into the works.
And then Slowly Freezing Heart takes a different approach again by stripping down the music, slowing down the vocals and focusing on ethereal backing guitars.
On the face of it, an album like S/T shouldn’t really work. But there is an aggression and anger running through all 10 songs that pins it all together beautifully. Loom said they didn’t want to make anyone else’s album and they haven’t. Nobody else could have pulled this off.
RUSHONROCK RATED: 10/10 Looming large over their competition
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