Gargantuan grooves are just waiting to come alive as we enter Energy’s debut album Rock Party, and as we soon learn in the eight tracks comprising its totality, there isn’t any stop that this band won’t pull out in their mission to engage us with their broad-shouldered musicality. “Rock Party” gets us rolling with brute force only to clear some space for the ominous basslines and subtle pop rhythm of “This Part of Town is a No Go,” the tenacious but tender melodicism of “Fight for Your Freedom,” a bittersweet electric ballad in “We Dream the Dream,” punkish stampedes of percussion, riff raucousness, and the stomp-beat of a freewheeling second act in the LP.
URL: https://energyukrockband.co.uk/
Energy does not slow down at the halfway point by any stretch of your imagination; though the second part gets started with a plaintive tone, chest-beating boisterousness is abound in “Cry of a Child,” “Spitfire Glory Boy,” and the consummate closer “And I’m Doing Alright.” While this is only the band’s first LP, it’s completely and verifiably devoid of the amateurishness that is so commonly found in a virgin studio effort.
There’s an 80s metal vibe in “Cry of a Child,” “This Part of Town is a No Go,” and “You Are Too Good to Lose,” but I wouldn’t go as far as to call any of these songs “throwbacks” in nature. There are plenty of modern elements in the tracks, as well as in their more calculated brethren like “We Dream the Dream” and “Fight for Your Freedom” to infect the album with a contemporary rock swing, but there’s no arguing against the fact that Energy is proudly wearing their influences on their sleeve in this record.
The tonality in the guitars has a resonance that is straight out of the classic rock playbook, but the stylization of the riffs is alternative by design, skewing conventional rhythm with an agile, and unpredictable, approach to tempo. The poppy hooks in “Rock Party,” “This Part of Town is a No Go,” “We Dream the Dream,” and to a lesser extent, “Spitfire Glory Boy,” are as essential to the accessibility of this LP as the scattered uncaged solos are, and though I would rarely say as much, this is an album that could attract as many casual rock fans as it does more serious students of the genre’s old school.
Though a little fragmented in construction and cosmetics, Energy’s debut is a worthwhile listen for rockers who have been searching for a fresh sound to add to their favorite playlist this season. If there’s one thing that this band does better than almost any other melodic rock unit I’ve reviewed in the last year, it’s leave a big impression even in cursory listens of their latest work. Whether it be “Spitfire Glory Boy,” “And I’m Doing Alright,” “Fight for Your Freedom,” the title cut, or “We Dream the Dream,” this record is jam-packed with startlingly intimidating licks, riffs, and lyrical lashings that make me excited to hear more from this group as time goes by. They’re in the early stages of something really interesting, and this first attempt at rock n’ roll greatness is a formidable one indeed.
Chadwick Easton