With the credentials of being personally invited to open for Smashing Pumpkins, as well as sharing the stage with Biffy Clyro, Glasgow rock band Twin Atlantic are undoubtedly a group worth looking further into. This four piece delivers a brand of alternative rock that merits so much more than just a simple slipping into place along side other bands of the genre, as the group plays an invigorating combination of catchy hooks, spacey distortion, and sneering vocal rasps.
The band recently released a new album, and while at just 8 tracks Vivarium is dubbed a ‘mini-album’, it packs a sound that is anything but short lived. The album kicks off with spacey sounding guitars and a general feel of the attitude 90’s rock has left us longing for since the new millennium, coupled with rolling bass and an all around catchy vibe that makes it no surprise that ‘Lightspeed’ is a track liked enough by the band to warrant its own video.
The first thing new listeners will notice about Twin Atlantic is the heavy Glaswegian accent of front man Sam McTrusty, which punches and kicks its way over the grinding guitars and tremulous percussion, found within the album. We were delighted by our discovery of this dialect upon first hearing the band, because all too often artists put aside their roots to take on a more American sound- one which we find all together boring. Twin Atlantic however takes advantage of the edge the ‘pissed off from across the pond’ vibe McTrusty’s throaty and smoky accent delivers.
In fact, that notion of putting on American airs is addressed in the bands song, “You’re Turning into John Wayne”, where lyrics such as “Have you lost your latitude and longitude?” pose the question of, “Why be something you’re not?”
Though the album as a whole is hard hitting and fast paced, the band does slow down in their final track, “Better Weather” where trickling guitar and a crooning front man give off a sense of softness to cushion the aggression heard earlier. However, this divergence from their heavier sound isn’t the only example of versatility Twin Atlantic gives in Vivarium. ‘Caribbean War Syndrome’ does some interesting shifts percussively, while the vocal pattern and lead guitar of ‘What is Light? Where is Laughter?’ contrast to the point of near confliction, but still somehow work.
Vivarium as a whole is an extremely satisfying set of songs. While some moments, like the aforementioned ‘You’re Turning into John Wayne’ and ‘Human After All’ are slightly lack luster instrumentally, the potential to blend in with other bands in those few songs is overruled but the bands potential for progress as a whole. Nonetheless, Twin Atlantic is certainly a group we’ll be keeping tabs on, and we look forward to the four-piece gracing our fair city this Friday at Subterranean- along with Fall of Troy and Envy on the Coast.
Tags: Album Review, New Music, Upcoming Show
