Album Review: Solutions. – Before The Roars

Being from Wales, I’m not sure if it’s bias or not to say that there must be something in the Welsh water because Solutions. debut album, 'Before The Roars' is yet another Welsh success.

First things first, you need to listen to this album with the volume up as high as can have it, because it’s definitely an album that needs to be listened to loudly. Album opener, ‘Fighting Tigers’ is fast paced while being catchy, the gruff vocals shouldn’t turn you off, it provides something different, something that next song, ‘The Rest Will Follow’ expands on, it’s the sound of a band steadying their feet and the chorus is huge.

The quality is maintained easily with ‘I Turned To Knife Crime’ and to keep up the variety, albeit only slightly ‘You Can’t Outnumber A Mathematician’ starts off with a high pitched riff before launching into an absolutely epic chorus, probably the best on the album. ‘Sons Of Daughters’ however brings the band back to its usual formula, the intro is explosive and it pretty much just plods along from there.

It’s not all positive though ‘Where The Good Ships Go To Sink’ is pretty forgettable and while the musicianship on ‘Mary Anne, Come Out Tonight’ is pretty impressive, the vocals, especially on the chorus sound quite strained.

It’s left to ‘Young Loins’ to close out the album, at only 2 minutes 18 seconds long, it’s quite a restrained song compared to what’s been on offer so far, that’s not a bad thing though, it gives the album more variety, making it sound fuller as a whole, not sure if this works as a closer though.

Overall this is pretty impressive, it’s something different to the sort of music you’ve expected to come out of Wales recently, the album is now up for free download from the band, and I like forward to seeing what they offer us on the next record.

3.5/5

'Before The Roars' by Solutions. is available as a free download here

Solutions. on MySpace.

Chris Marshman