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Smash Up - Crowns Title: Crowns
Artist: Smash Up
Genre: Hardcore/Metal/Rock
Runtime: 52:27
Year: 2014
Release: April 21
Producer: Dan Servente About:
Crowns is the sixth studio album by Welsh hardocre/rock quintet Smash Up on their tenth year as a band. The album was written by all members of Smash Up between February and October 2013. The album was recorded and produced by the bands vocalist, Dan Servente, in London between November 2013 and January 2014. The album is the follow-up to 2010's The Concept. It features one special guest artist (Parish, who features on the track Puzzle and is the first album to feature James Holloway (drums) and Chris Davies (guitar).
Tracklist:
1)Blood Diamond
2)The Wolf
3)Puzzle (feat. Parish)
4)Dirty Dancing Devils
5)Crowns
6)One For the Road
7)Fools Gold
8)Citizen
9)They Say There's Nothing Like Persistence
10)Headlights
Personnel:
Dan Servente - Vocals, Production
Jake Symonds - Guitar, Production
Chris Davies - Guitar
Ollie Williams - Bass
James Holloway - Drums
REVIEW:
An album that takes four years to release is always going to be highly anticipated regardless of the situations that may have occurred during the years prior to its release. Smash Up, however, in their usual fashion, have to go a step up on that, in four years they’ve lost a friend and band member at the age of 23, played a hometown show to over 70,000 people to say goodbye and reformed. Writing the follow up to 2010’s “The Concept” was always going to be a big ask without said events taking place, after all, it is the album that broke over 1 million sales and rubber stamped Smash Up as one of the biggest hardcore bands in history.
Fast forward four years and here we are, a new era begins today. Smash Up’s sixth release, Crowns, is everything that you expect from a Smash Up album and a little bit more, some would say that’s not a good thing but believe us, it is.
The opening tracks Blood Diamond and The Wolf really kicks the album off with a furious start that even in the Dubstep-fuelled “Puzzle” or the belter of a power ballad “Fools Gold” never seems to go away. Many bands mellow with age, and you’d be forgiven if before you listened to the 10 songs on this album you thought that Smash Up were going to do exactly that, we have to tell you that you’re mistaken!
Pitch perfect screams and gut-wrenching roars fill the album and compress the clean vocals that vocalist Dan Servente has always been fond of to a minimum for the majority of the 10 tracks, a great treat for fans of the punk teenagers who called themselves Smash Up that started breaking into the scene in ’05 and grew into a band which sell out shows in an instant all around the world, fans of the newer material aren’t disappointed either, tracks such as Citizen prove to be songs that will be sung louder than some of the classics when the band start taking to the road in support of the album. New boy James Holloway shows consistently that he is up to the challenge of filling the position of Smash Up drummer, out of this world fills and tricky beats are scattered around the album, very easy listening for any music fanatic that can appreciate talent when they see it, regardless of their taste in music.
Experimenting with genres has never been something that we have associated with Smash Up. They’re the straight talking, get to the point and don’t fuck around Welsh band that tear up stages and studios for fun, but when track number three hits, the word “curveball” doesn’t quite cut it.
London-based rapper Parish shows us his angry side alongside Servente’s usual shouting and screaming, although the guitars of Jake Symonds and Chris Davies are ever present in the song, it’s really Ollie Williams skill on the bass that blends perfectly with dubstep breaks and beats and the cheeky little drum & bass elements that have been placed carefully into this mash up where two very different ends of the musical spectrum blend in near perfect harmony. Could this be one of the great collaborations that leave us begging for more? Only time will tell. First few listens, however, say yes!
The pop-punk infused Dirty Dancing Devils is enough to keep us listening halfway through the album, although breakdowns cover the majority of the song, the track is led by Dan Servente’s wonderful singing voice which we really hadn’t heard enough from before the second half of the album. The band talked about “breaking up” the album so listening isn’t boring, they’ve done that perfectly.
Smash Up wouldn’t be Smash Up without taking a breather to give us something to listen to when we’re sad, Fools Gold is the track which provides the salvation for all the hardcore lonely hearts on this album, but even this has something about it which gives it a kick up the ass, it doesn’t feel like that pace has slowed down too much.
One final highlight comes in the form of the longest song the band has ever written. Final track “Headlights” has a total run time of 09:22. That’s right, nine minutes and twenty two seconds. During this time we have your usual Smash Up hardcore anthem which incorporates classic group vocals and groovy riffs, a soft part where an eerie piano accompanies and reverb-soaked Servente screaming his heart out, a guitar solo and of course, a breakdown. Not only that, but you’ve also got a string section and a synth bringing something new in the background thrown in for good measure. The band really went to town on this song and it paid off, it’s an outstanding way to end an album which shows that this band not only has bags of talent, but a whole lot of integrity.
What Smash Up have done with this album is made the point that this bands career is far from over, a decade of being a band has been dented by tragedy and drama but they’ve come out stronger and ready to take on the world.
ooc: I'll be building this up gradually in the replies, posting each track etc, losing the whole album RP wasn't part of my plans!Edited by user 22 April 2014 06:45:22(UTC)
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My Artists: SMASH UP Hardcore/Rock Crowns out now JOSH WILLIAMS Acoustic/Folk/Indie On tour now "Overdue" EP released July 14th 2014 |
 3 users thanked startedin07nowImhere for this useful post.
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