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NBHAP Rating: 4,1/5
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[one_half last=”yes”]AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR
Heirs
Release-Date: 04.05.2015
Label: Sargent House
Tracklist:
01. Run Home
02. These Secret Kings I Know
03. Wasps
04. Redesigned a Million Times
05. People Not Sleeping
06. Fucking Lifer
07. A Beacon, A Compass, An Anchor
08. Animal Ghosts
09. Heirs
10. Tryer, You
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Inheritance of ideas
To have four equally brilliant studio albums is not an easy task. To sustain creativity and relationships for the duration of four longplayers and to constantly deliver for the fans is not easy either. AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR have done just that with the release of their fourth studio long player, Heirs. Sounding slightly like an intergalactic dream, Heirs is a unique and powerful follow-up to 2013’s All Hail Bright Futures. It is a fiery and brilliant new long player, in perfect time for a summer of festivals. The ‘inheritance of ideas’ is a key theme to the new record as the band explained in a press statement. They re-discover their melodic roots while on the other side sounding more focussed than on the album’s predecessor. Heirs is dominated by an epic intensity, proving once again why these guys are playing in their own league when it comes to instrumental rock records.
Irish blood, global heart
It is almost impossible to believe that AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR are a Belfast based band. Devoid of that classic Irish sound that was so perfected by rock bands like THE UNDERTONES, AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR are a breath of fresh air in Irish rock music. Not sounding traditionally Irish does not stop the Belfast rockers from being a powerful and iconic force. Heirs is a record of many layers and genres, a groundbreaking effort for the band. Continuing down the same road as the previous three records yet acting as an example of a band that has matured. Impressive pop guitar riffs teamed with defining drum rhythms make Heirs an intensely different rock album. Choral vocals reminiscent of early 2000’s American rock bands yet the four-piece adds an undeniably European edge. And you can’t deny the math-rock ingredients, of course.
All killer, no filler
Run Home works as an impressive opening track of the album. Proving an explosive beginning by teaming high-pitched guitar riffs and choral chanting. It is a record without a peak, just constant explosions. Wasps sounds like impending doom. Quite strange perhaps to describe a song as sounding like a feeling, but Wasps is just that. An escalating choral chant breaking into angry guitar melodies and drum rhythms it sounds like the sudden fear. It’s an impressive talent of a band to encapsulate an obscure notion rather than a definitive overdone topic such as love or partying. Words are truly unnecessary when it comes to spreading the emotional messages of this record. The Irish gentlemen rather deliver ten tracks of escalating power and anger in the most passionate way. This is the only criticism to an otherwise perfect record, it’s a heart racer, too much peaking. Its all-killer no filler, but a filler would have been good for this record. A break in the escalation would have provided a welcome relief. But when you got so much to say like AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR you just don’t have time to catch your breath, right?
Impressive, intense and without gaps – AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR are once again at their finest on ‘Heirs’, delivering an instrumental rock rollercoaster ride.
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