Album Review: Statues – Holocene

Here we go again!  Well for myself at least, a Swedish band that hits new heights of sound and passion, a band that has flown under my radar up until now, but have just dropped bombs of pure energy into my ears.

Having already been impressed by bands like Rotten Mind and Beat City Tubeworks this year from the same neck of the woods, its a pleasure to find that strong melodic rock is also thriving in Sweden too.

Statues bring ‘Holocene’ out October 30th via Lovely Records this their second full length at a time of unknowns as to how and when live music will return to normality. 

‘Holocene’ a new layer in the history of the band might be a good analogy, sounding like they have taken some heavy influence from the likes of Husker Du and Sonic Youth, but this has not been simply blended into a bad copy, rather they have taken their lead and derived the Statues sound that may influence future bands in the same way. 

‘The Salt’ brings this chapter of the bands life to an explosive start, pure rock with attitude that remands of something New Model Army in stature, which is a sound that does thread threw the album like a wonderful comfort blanket for fans of the dark and passionate, ‘Something In The Water’ only serves to cement this, with a melodic wall of sound that drives the whole thing along.

‘Cardiac Arrest’ and ‘Grab The Bags And Run’ follow, giving a precursor to what is in store with the bands look at life as it is for most in these manic times, pressures of life leading to a world of intensity and a feeling of how do we get the hell out of it all (environmental meltdown). 

‘Lockdown’ being an absolute stand out for me, apparently written before lockdown around the world, couldn’t be more apt in title, not sure who the back vocal comes from but this adds a dimension that rounds the bands sound perfectly.

Halfway through your then aloud to relax a little with ‘Shitstorm’ which as a title doesn’t give the impression that its a chill, but within the context of Statues this is a mildly softer sound, but not lyrically, still they have something to say.

‘Ending The Holocene’ which is possibly the title track to the album, has a mildly goth sound stranded through it, a song that draws a picture of earth killing in an industrial landscape, maybe this is the capping off of humanities holocene layer. 

The rest of the album never disappoints, from ‘Sleepytown’ with its atmosphere, ‘Black Smoke’ has undertones of Joy Division albeit not so dark, but definitely an energy that grabs you, then to end ‘Shotgun’ takes all the elements that glue the album together to create a send off that has you hoping live music does come back sooner rather than later.

Punk attitude, 80’s darkness, gritty rock grunge and all with an eye on humanities downfalls.

Get your copy of this album HERE

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