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Review: Michael Addison - Blinding Shadows [Album]

Self Released // "each track sounds distinct and builds up tp a sense of completeness as you finish the LP"

by ivarmac, October 9th, 2012 and has been Read 645 times.
Last Edited by: Chris MUG5 Maguire October 9th, 2012.

Classic Punk, with a little bit of Grunge forms the backbone of Michael Addison’s new album Blinding Shadows, it’s influence turning up in a surprising variety of tracks orbiting around the chops of Michael Addisonand the excellent instrumentation throughout the record. What’s on offer with Blinding Shadows is an album of extremely tight melodies, delivered at a blistering pace and brought together by Michael Addison’s understated vocals.

http://soundcloud.com/mt-press/michael-addison-never-look

Blinding Shadows begins with ‘Never Look Back’, a Buzzcocks style punk blast with lurching melodies and the understated, effective voice of Michael Addison. You can hear the urgency with every hit of the drums and it’s an awesome opening. ‘Alone’ is a more chilled out affair with a simple, effective chorus but the change in tone works well, a feature throughout Blinding Shadows. 'No Regret' opts for Blink 182-style guitar riffing before settling into a Ramones inspired chorus and refrain of “tick tock, there’s no hope for you” while the moody ‘Go’ showcases booming drums that set a slow, stately track alight in glorious fashion.

‘Let Me Burn’ is a song that can safely be described as epic and comes as a nice counterpoint to the slower or gloomier tracks preceding it. Again, a change in style is welcomed, and is handled very well to mix well into Blinding Shadows.

http://soundcloud.com/mt-press/michael-addison-alone

The instrumentation is pretty fantastic throughout Blinding Shadows and brings personality to each of the tracks on Blinding Shadows. Best of all, over a varied album, each track sounds distinct and builds up tp a sense of completeness as you finish the LP. Whether its the strings and soft female duet on ‘All Your Might’ or singing, harmonised guitar solos on ‘Dream’ or the chugging riffs on ‘Tell Me Lies‘, everything has a place and is used deftly and to maximum effect.

I enjoyed the understated vocals but they do get lost in the mix all too often and this renders a portion of the lyrics impossible to make out. A shame as it lets down a good album in which the other instruments come through so clearly.

Blinding Shadows is a solid album. Michael Addison is a great songwriter and binds all the different strings of infuence into a neat, visceral package. I'll be looking forward to seeing where he goes next.

Bliding Shadows is availble now