The Last Battle – Lay Your Burden Down

Album Review by Chris Buckle | 25 Apr 2014
Album title: Lay Your Burden Down
Artist: The Last Battle
Label: Beard of Truth
Release date: 5 May

Opening their second album with a robust Be-My-Baby beat, returning Edinburghers The Last Battle initially seem a somewhat different band to that which made the predominantly stripped-down Heart of the Land, Soul of the Sea back in 2010. In a sense, it is a different band, with only drummer Liam O’Hare and bandleader Scott Longmuir remaining of the debut’s personnel – a line-up reshuffle that contributed towards Lay Your Burden Down’s lengthy gestation.

But while there are further signs of change here and there (for instance, The Crunching’s 90s-alt-rock air, which muddies Longmuir’s vocals and foregrounds a forceful bassline), the folk dynamics with which the band first established themselves are otherwise allowed to gradually reassert their dominance – which is no bad thing, since it’s in the quieter, simpler stretches where Longmuir achieves his finest work. While still partial to occasional clichés, he demonstrates his songwriting poise on multiple occasions, with closer Torness providing a low-key, late-stage peak. [Chris Buckle]

The Last Battle play The Roxy 171, Glasgow on 1 May and The Liquid Room, Edinburgh on 2 May http://thelastbattlemusic.bandcamp.com