One of the UK's hottest young rock bands release their much-anticipated debut album.
Fierce Panda: 1 October 2007
Last updated: 20 November 2008
It's hard to think of another young British rock outfit (saving Gallows) that's had such an astonishing rise to prominence in the last year or so than The Blackout.
Tracklisting
- Tick Tick Boom!!
- I've Got Better Things To Do Tonight Than Die
- I Know You Are But What Am I?
- Spread Legs Not Lies
- The Beijing Cocktail
- Murder In The Make-Believe Ballroom
- Prepare For A Wound
- It's High Tide Baby
- Tops Off Party
- She Is Macho
- Life And Death In Space
From being taken on the road by bosom buddies Lostprophets, to their own headline tours, the Merthyr Tydfil six-piece have taken the Kerrang!-reading teenage rock market by the scruff of the neck.
Following on from The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout! EP, We Are The Dynamite is a debut album of great proficiency, melody and no little humour.
In common with their Merthyr compatriots Midasuno, there's mischief in their lyrics and a tongue-in-tongue playing about with misogynist rock stereotypes (check the cover - Smell The Glove indeed).
The Blackout are a party band, from loon frontman Sean's whole demeanour, to the likes of Tops Off Party. It's almost as if they know they've lucked into a world of sexual high jinks by dint of playing radio-friendly punk rock.
Unabashed party animals they may be, but they have their tender moments such as It's High-Tide Baby (on which Lostprophets' Ian Watkins guests), and their modern rock megaliths designed for American FM radio such as Murder In The Make Believe Ballroom.
They do sound like other bands with their assimilation of rock, emo, punk and big choruses. They do have a marked 'modernity' that may curtail their comparative lifespan, but here, now, The Blackout are what Welsh rock is.
We Are The Dynamite is an explosive 11 tracks of singalong, air-punching fun and fury, which nails their sound perfectly. It's sexy stuff.
Words: James McLaren
