Woking five-piece Palm Reader’s new LP ‘Bad Weather’ is a might strong effort, and carries enough meaty riffs to get you in the mood for a good stomping. Bands as young as this lot tend to induce a face palm or two when attempting music this rowdy, but this debut has enough groove and pace to have you leaning towards the repeat button. Rumour has it they are pretty ‘in your face’ as a live outfit too, and this should help them reach a whole range of new fans.
‘Spineless’, despite being titled a bit like it might be emo track about your ex girlfriend, carries enough smash in these two minutes to knock out Mike Tyson, and the transition to ‘Smack Hound’ is top-notch. Both tracks have cracking fast paced guitar work, and both are an excellent listen.
Packed with head-banging riffs in all the right places, there is simply no déjà , no predictability and no bullshit in this record, just solid song writing from beginning to end from a very promising new band.
‘Seeing And Believing Are Two Different Things’ is arguably the best track on the release, with ‘Uncomfortably Lucid’ nipping closely at its heels. There is so much going on in the both tracks, and with exploding vocal parts and riffage galore, there’s not a boring moment in sight. It’s not all intense and shouty though, as ‘Noble Host (Grace part 3)’ shows off some melodic vocals with surprising emotive musicality laced throughout.
As cliché as is sounds, this is a pretty unique effort, and the lads get top marks – here’s hoping for more of the same in the future.
STEPH KNIGHT