Fortune of Sorrow’s recent release Red or Black is by no means bad but I heard their influences and potential more than I heard unique, great songs that I’d go out of my way to listen to again.

Fortune of Sorrow are influenced by some of my favourite bands; Guns N Roses, Green Day, Aerosmith. I was excited to hear this album, it sounded as if it’d be right up my street and I guess technically it is. The opening track ‘Blew Me Away’ seemed to have it all, intense, strong vocals, guitar solos, a generally great rock n roll sound. It was a modern take on Classic Rock. Think of a Scottish Wolfmother and you have a good idea. But then it was the same for every track. At one point I didn’t even realise the track had changed.

I realise that a lot of  unsigned artists are better experienced live and for that reason, I’ll be going to see them live before truly making up my mind. I don’t think they’re bad at-all, just finding their feet and struggling to separate their own sound from that of their influences. I’ll still be keeping an eye out for them and my poor experience with Red or Black hasn’t deterred me. Their potential is huge but this album just doesn’t quite live up to it.

You can find Fortune of Sorrow here

Hip Hop/Metal act Skeleton Verse have released a new EP, The Storm Before the Calm. It’s an angry, passionate, intelligent EP which epitomises the working class reaction to Cameron’s government concisely and defiantly with lines such as “United Kingdom? That’s false advertising!”.

Vocalist Brian Jamieson has an exceptional talent. This release sees him pushing his vocal abilities to the limit with almost tongue twisters,faster paced songs such as Stone, Paper, Scissors, Metal Head or Tails as well as catchier, crowd-movers such as Britannia: Rule Cool Fool which is a direct slating of the flimsiness of national pride with the chorus ‘Rule Britannia! Cool Britannia! Fool Britannia!’ being spat out. Think of a modern day, British version of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name’.

That being said, ‘Fort Knocks’ is probably the stand-out track in an almost flawless EP. It displays the band’s roots via the extremely blatant Scottish accents that aren’t as prevalent on the other tracks.

The Storm Before the Calm Vol II is an unforgettable album and I don’t say that lightly. Skeleton Verse have brought something back to the metal scene which was very sorely missed. Their combination of metal and hip-hop has fortunately not landed them in the trap that is early-2000′s cringeworthy ‘Nu-Metal’ but rather among musical heroes such as Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine.  They are one of Scotland’s best kept secrets and as nice as it is to have such talent only being known among a few of us, it’s time Skeleton Verse got the recognition they deserve.

This week I’ll be posting an interview I did 2 months ago with Skeleton Verse’s frontman Brian Jamieson but until then, you can check them out here.