Sound Of Guns - Elementary Of Youth [EP]

Distiller Records

October 20, 2009, 06:51 PM

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Now if somebody said to you they’d been listening to the Sound Of Guns from Liverpool you might get the wrong impression, it might conjure up certain stereotypes and reinforce the negative attitudes some still have about the city and its inhabitants. Liverpool band Sound Of Guns, could tell you a thing or two about such prejudices for they were recently detained by the police prior to a gig in Wakefield. Apparently Scouse voices were overheard from a van discussing guns, the police were tipped off and the band were arrested on suspicion of possessing firearms. But aside from police stereotyping Sound Of Guns is not your atypical Liverpudlian band. Past bands from the city seemed to consist primarily of cheeky scouse ragamuffins with a penchant for slightly jaunty, slightly annoying, 60’s flavoured, jangly guitar rock. Sound Of Guns are having none of that. You won’t find lumpen mutton fingered rock which became the staple of latter day Oasis, nor will you find arch Libertine wannabes donning twatty little hats whilst affecting the rather tiresome “fey Byronesque misunderstood poet” routine. No, Sound of Guns are more influenced by bands such as The Walkmen, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and they produce a sound so immense that it makes the Manic Street Preachers sound like they must record all their albums in an outside dunny whilst standing in an old tin bath.

Nevertheless, despite possessing talent, there are a number of obstacles which need to be overcome by guitar bands, much of it caused by the capricious nature of fashion and the sheep like mentality of certain record labels. The policy of saturating the market with second rate ‘landfill indie’, has not made for the most fertile of environments. It was only when the labels began to notice the public’s growing indifference to their identikit faux indie kackfest that they shat their collective pants and desperately tried to recapture the zeitgeist. Their plan was simple, they would declare all guitar music passée, boring and irrelevant and in a move that would make the most corrupt politician blush, distance themselves from the very quagmire they had created. They would, in league with influential music mags and tastemakers, decree that the brave new musical landscape would be a female led, electro based, pop nirvana.

However, stories of the death of guitar based music have been very much exaggerated and Sound of Guns "Elementary of Youth" EP demonstrates that with attitude, style and crucially, an ability to write decent tunes, all is not lost. It might be a stretch to say they are the saviours of guitar based rock, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. But what on earth does "Elementary of Youth" actually mean? Well to be honest I’ve got no idea and neither does leading on line search engine Google, so I’ll make it up and suggest it was used by Sherlock Holmes in “The Sign of The Speckled Hound And The Four Carbuncles.”

(Cut to Holmes arching an eyebrow enigmatically as he draws deeply on his crack pipe whilst poor old Watson scratches his head in bewildered awe).

Still you don’t have to understand the title to enjoy the music; “Elementary Of Youth” is a blast of hook laden rock that demonstrates why Sound Of Guns are gaining such positive reviews. It’s anthemic without sounding pompous, it’s radio friendly without being trite and it’s the sound of a band dancing on the bloated corpse of overblown sub-Zutons nostalgic dad rock that has dominated the Liverpool music scene for far too long. It’s emotive and dynamic. Singer Andy Metcalfe has a voice full of such raw power and passion that one can’t help but feel inspired by it. He ‘sings like he means it’ and doubtless if he were to recite “The Grand Old Duke Of York” he’d manage to imbue it with some sort of gravitas and emotional depth. They aren’t short of confidence either; when Andy found out incomprehensible kiwi fruitloop Zane Lowe, had the band at number seven in his “hottest tracks in the world” feature on Radio 1, he retorted “Seventh? The cheeky bastard!"

Of the four tracks on offer on "Elementary of Youth" it’s difficult to chose a favourite. 'Dead Sea Scrolls' starts off with a riff that for a minute sounds like The Scissor Sisters 'Laura' but once the guitars kick in they dispel any notion that the band are about to don lycra and pink feather boas in what would be a rather unexpected change of musical direction. 'Lightspeed' is the another epic sounding track, and it makes Bono appear as though he’s been a member of a Sound Of Guns tribute band for the past 15 years. "Elementary of Youth" ends with ‘Gallantry'; a track that, like all great songs, is impossible to get out of your head after a few listens. (There’s also a slightly odd hidden track which doesn’t really add anything to the EP.) If this is a taster of things to come from the lads debut album then reserve me a seat at the table of rock as we are in for a banquet.

The Sound Of Guns is the sound of a band going places, and that my friends is elementary.

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