Weird Is The New Black : The Boom Sons album review.

The Boom Sons are a band that I have tried to see live a number of times without success. It seems that whenever they are playing, either I am working, I have a gig myself or they have had to cancel the gig at short notice (this also seems to be the case with Ink’d). Again, I had to miss them in Llanelli last weekend due to work commitments but thankfully I did manage to catch them a couple of weeks back at a gig in Swansea with E11ven and Greenmailer, where I picked up a copy of their seven track mini-album, Weird is the New Black. Here’s a quick review of the album and a few words from the band themselves. The album starts with the riff-tastic Through the Rain. This track is based around a guitar riff on top of a busy drum backing that is guaranteed to get your head bobbing and a powerful vocal line. Next track up Beautiful starts with a complete change of sound with a jazzy beginning to it. This is my personal favourite track of theirs and it shows off the talents of each member of the band. As a contrast to the opening track where Vanessa really belts out her vocals, during this track she starts with a controlled sultry voice which you would not imagine came from her if you had heard her strong valleys accent when speaking. This song then changes midway through when the chorus builds up and the band lets loose with a heavier second half. There aren’t many songs that can make the transition from sounding like Portishead to sounding like Black Sabbath without feeling disjointed but the band manage to pull it off here. The album continues the theme of sleazy grooves featuring big riffs, a pounding bass line, catchy choruses and max-ed out vocals for Heart Attack and Move Your Derrière, before a slight rest-bight for track six’s gentle instrumental, called quite simply, Interlude, which I initially thought was a long outro to the QUIET loud QUIET track Safe. The album finishes the same way as the gig did with the excellent Candy Floss Sandwich which amalgamates the styles of the previous tracks, opening with a restrained feel before letting rip into an epic finish. A top quality album from a top quality band that I recommend that you check out when you get the chance. Fosta