‘Nothing in my head, just silence screaming.’
So I find myself poking a stick into the Great Music Stories catalogue, that merry -go-round of marvellousness and today I bring you my Northamptonshire friends Empyre, a fire-breathing four piece that have grabbed the modern Rock scene by the nether regions and are twisting and shouting for all to hear.
The title track ‘Relentless’ opens the show and we see how relentless the band are in their ethos, the riffage here is merciless, hard Rock at its finest, clean, clear, and skilful.
The band are Henrik Steenholdt – vocals, Did Coles – lead guitar, Grant Hockley – bass and Elliot Bale on drums, providing guitar driven tunes, strumming like their lives depend on it and enjoying every second. Impassioned music that pleads and connects with your innermost thoughts and feelings that you thought you hid from the world. Empyre are here to open you up.
Located away from the herd and establishing their own identity, they are kings of the grassroots scene, if you still need convincing, you will find the hope for all our futures wrapped up neatly in these ten songs.
‘Cry Wolf’ contains a succession of systematic hammer blows, just making sure you get the message, that stop – start mechanism where you are unsure as to the next note to be played. A variation on the usual arrangement that is clever and pertinent. The soaring skywards melodies on ‘Hit And Run’ annihilate all the five major layers of the atmosphere and the heavens open to rain down their mercy on us all.
‘Quiet Commotion’ has the painful admission ‘I’ve walked away from the part of me that I’m too scared to fight’.
The album finishes with instrumental and demo versions of four of the tracks, always a welcome addition, as you let the music whisk you away, a transcendence of souls, an insight into how music is composed, culminating in a spiritual and philosophical release. My friend Wayne is an emotional wreck – and I mean that in the nicest way – unable to stifle the immediate and impactive blubbing when they perform ‘My Immortal’ that for me is testament enough to the moral rectitude and majesty of this band.
With this album in your heart ‘I just thought you should know that life has sometimes been kind.’
Bless up.
Azra Pathan
Empyre – Relentless out now