Album Review: The 9’s – Here Be Monsters

Being the debut release for an independent label is always going to put a bit of extra pressure on how well your record is received. 'Here Be Monsters' isn’t great, but their label could do a lot worse with their first release.

‘Wrestling With Tigers’ is a furious opener, Fast paced with a decent riff holding it up, while next track ‘Sweet Victory’ while not as good, keeps up the intensity on offer so far.

Probably the best song on the album is ‘Empire Strikes Back’ it has an intro that resonates through the song that just ensures a smile on your face, ‘Tuesday Song’ is another good effort and ‘Guilt, Time, Regret’ allows the album to go out on a high.

However, it isn’t all just good, there are some poor songs, ‘Nothing Left To Give’ is immediately forgettable and ‘A Problem Shared’ is easily the worst thing on the record.

All in all, it’s not a poor album by any means, I wish they had condensed the good songs and just released it as an EP though. This is the sound of a band that do not sound ready to record an 8 track album, I think the next step forward for this band is more studio time to refine and fix the mistakes.

2.5/5

Chris Marshman