Alabaster Suns - Alabaster Suns

Southern's PR team seem pretty confident that Alabaster Suns are reinventing the wheel on this weighty five-track debut, with their assertion that “complex timings and atypical riffs create a sound all of their own”. In fact, this is a highly enjoyable but not groundbreaking coming together of drop-tuned metallic influences and a hint of off-kilter discord. Blessed with a broad metal appeal, it's likely to sit well alongside everything from Entombed to Will Haven. Assembled from the wreckage of Capricorns, this is three guys making a hell of a racket and powering through some well-arranged, tightly performed rock music, rich in testosterone and bloody thunder.
The recording could perhaps have been a bit more punchy and the eponymous fourth track is a bit of a non-event, doubtlessly intended to provide some gentle, atmospheric relief from the pummelling; however, this is an otherwise strong album and bodes well for live performances.