Inglorious
Inglorious
Frontiers Music Srl
2016
Inglorious is a quintet hailing from England, which seems to have both a big love as well as a deep understanding of what made some of the golden oldies in hard rock really work. Even though they‘re rather young and weren’t around back in the 70s or would have been pretty young and green in the 80s, they perform just as if they were at the height of their career in the mid-70s, before the punk explosion bit rock in the butt, prompting it to get louder and faster – leading to the 80s metal explosion that ensued.
Inglorious are the lovechild (gotta ask the Covernor, about its legitimacy) of bands like Whitesnake, Purple, Bad Company and Led Zep and many others and while it would probably be a bit of a hyperbole to say that this band’s debut almost annihilates whatever album most of these rock behemoths have released in recent years, it wouldn’t be far from the truth as their eponymous debut almost antagonizes some of the classic bands, classic albums head on!
When I first heard of Nathan James through his involvement at the UJR “Scorpions Revisited Album”, I wasn’t that impressed, but it might have been, because that albums seems to have been tracked live and he’s trying to emulate Klaus Meine, thus somewhat not being able to be “himself”. I’m also no big fan of “carols” so I do not often check what TSO is doing – another project with which NJ has been associated with, unless I’m asked to review something, or someone prompts me to. On this, the first album that I was able to listen to him doing his own thing, I was pretty blown away. He sounds like a more 70s influenced Dickinson, who often channels “The Cov” or Paul Rodgers, without having to resort to copying them. He professes that the band hasn’t used any of the modern studio trickery, no tricks, no double tracks, or autotune etc… because they wanted to capture the raw excitement of their performances. He also maintains that this album is just the band playing in the same room with minimal overdubs. Hard to believe it, but I must say that the production sounds indeed lively and organic, so if that’s what he and the band set out to do, their mission is pretty much accomplished.
But this wouldn’t amount to much if the band didn’t have some good songs. And thankfully the synergy between musicians extended to writing some songs that feel natural (born) rockers. They might have a feel of say Whitesnake or Purple, even to the point of using some “trademarks” but in that case everyone who did use a couple of things that make the “Maiden” songs sound like “Maiden” songs would be writing Iron Maiden tunes and somehow… I just don’t see too many successful clones out there… despite any similarities, which I suppose are far from coincidental; the songs are quite original, only cloning the vibe and not the riffs or other parts of songs, which is commendable, since in this day and age, we see a lot of recycling from bands and artists with some really obvious cases, where you can sing an old lyric over a “new” song…
Joining NJ on his adventure and making up Inglorious are rhythm guitarist Will Taylor, lead guitarist Andreas Eriksson, bassist Colin Parkinson, and drummer Phil Beaver. The latter two have been in bands together for most of their lives, and at one point both were even signed to Mick Fleetwood’s label while Phil was still at school Swede, Andreas Eriksson is the “viking” of this band growing up in a steady diet of all the greats and performing in a variety of bands there, before joining the band, completing the “puzzle”. Their “Frontiers” connection has afforded them a few guests including Al Pitrelli (Megadeth, Alice Cooper, Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Joel Hoekstra (Night Ranger, Whitesnake) and Neil Fairclough (Queen), which wrote and helped them out.
Apparently when they played, this to Chris Kimsey, who has worked with The Who and the Rolling Stones, he said “There is nothing for me to do, you guys are doing what I would tell you to do already”. High praise, indeed. And he was pretty spot on the money and this sounds just as it should and each of the eleven songs it has feels as urgent and necessary as it should in making up this modern day classic.
Fans of Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Bad Company and pretty much any other band that made it big in the 70s or 80s in the classic rock genre do yourselves a favor and pick this one up. Yesterday…
Inglorious are the lovechild (gotta ask the Covernor, about its legitimacy) of bands like Whitesnake, Purple, Bad Company and Led Zep and many others and while it would probably be a bit of a hyperbole to say that this band’s debut almost annihilates whatever album most of these rock behemoths have released in recent years, it wouldn’t be far from the truth as their eponymous debut almost antagonizes some of the classic bands, classic albums head on!
When I first heard of Nathan James through his involvement at the UJR “Scorpions Revisited Album”, I wasn’t that impressed, but it might have been, because that albums seems to have been tracked live and he’s trying to emulate Klaus Meine, thus somewhat not being able to be “himself”. I’m also no big fan of “carols” so I do not often check what TSO is doing – another project with which NJ has been associated with, unless I’m asked to review something, or someone prompts me to. On this, the first album that I was able to listen to him doing his own thing, I was pretty blown away. He sounds like a more 70s influenced Dickinson, who often channels “The Cov” or Paul Rodgers, without having to resort to copying them. He professes that the band hasn’t used any of the modern studio trickery, no tricks, no double tracks, or autotune etc… because they wanted to capture the raw excitement of their performances. He also maintains that this album is just the band playing in the same room with minimal overdubs. Hard to believe it, but I must say that the production sounds indeed lively and organic, so if that’s what he and the band set out to do, their mission is pretty much accomplished.
But this wouldn’t amount to much if the band didn’t have some good songs. And thankfully the synergy between musicians extended to writing some songs that feel natural (born) rockers. They might have a feel of say Whitesnake or Purple, even to the point of using some “trademarks” but in that case everyone who did use a couple of things that make the “Maiden” songs sound like “Maiden” songs would be writing Iron Maiden tunes and somehow… I just don’t see too many successful clones out there… despite any similarities, which I suppose are far from coincidental; the songs are quite original, only cloning the vibe and not the riffs or other parts of songs, which is commendable, since in this day and age, we see a lot of recycling from bands and artists with some really obvious cases, where you can sing an old lyric over a “new” song…
Joining NJ on his adventure and making up Inglorious are rhythm guitarist Will Taylor, lead guitarist Andreas Eriksson, bassist Colin Parkinson, and drummer Phil Beaver. The latter two have been in bands together for most of their lives, and at one point both were even signed to Mick Fleetwood’s label while Phil was still at school Swede, Andreas Eriksson is the “viking” of this band growing up in a steady diet of all the greats and performing in a variety of bands there, before joining the band, completing the “puzzle”. Their “Frontiers” connection has afforded them a few guests including Al Pitrelli (Megadeth, Alice Cooper, Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Joel Hoekstra (Night Ranger, Whitesnake) and Neil Fairclough (Queen), which wrote and helped them out.
Apparently when they played, this to Chris Kimsey, who has worked with The Who and the Rolling Stones, he said “There is nothing for me to do, you guys are doing what I would tell you to do already”. High praise, indeed. And he was pretty spot on the money and this sounds just as it should and each of the eleven songs it has feels as urgent and necessary as it should in making up this modern day classic.
Fans of Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Bad Company and pretty much any other band that made it big in the 70s or 80s in the classic rock genre do yourselves a favor and pick this one up. Yesterday…