Album Released 19 October 2009

www.floodofred.co.uk

Jordan Speirs - Vocals
Graham Griffiths- Drums
Jamie McGowan - Bass
Calum Doris - Guitar, Vocals
Sean McGroarty - Guitar
Dale Gallacher - Electronics, Vocals

After building a fan base through living on the road for the past few years, playing literally hundred of shows and accumulating over 1,800,000 plays on MySpace to date, the band are excited to be giving something back to the fans. In a lot of ways, the band feel as if their musical adolescence was spent in King Tuts, watching many of their favourite bands from all over the globe and then going on to sell-out the venue as Flood of Red.

The band’s debut album, LEAVING EVERYTHING BEHIND, was recorded in Baltimore, Maryland with producer Brian McTernan. Far from the band’s primitive screamo style, Flood of Red have matured beyond their 21 years of age, recording an honest album reflecting on what life is like growing up in small towns in the central belt of Scotland. The record will be released in the UK exclusively through the band’s own Dark City Records, initially direct-to-fans through the band’s own website.

With such great and adventurous music emanating from the USA and Australia right now, I pray to Allah that UK bands can pick up the ball and run with it. And 2009 has not been a bad year for them, although they are generally still lagging behind ‘them.’ So I had everything crossed and double-crossed for Flood of Red’s debut album. It’s almost there…

‘The Edge Of The World (Prelude)’ is a gentle, wistful introduction with a stripped down backdrop of keyboard notes under a really sensitive, pensive vocal. It indeed hints at adventure. ‘The Harmony’ then dives into indie rock with a vengeance as angry bass rhythm and blanket guitar riffs cascade. There are clever changes of pace, great lyrics and another fine, expressive vocal performance from Jordan Spiers. The only thing missing is a killer melody but it’s a satisfying rocker all the same. ‘A Place Before The End’ is another epic tune but lacks standout hooks to really hammer it home. ‘Like Elephants’ drops pace and opens in quiet, reflective mode before the band chime in with some ringing rocky instrumentals. The choruses are pretty special but once again melody is not quite strong enough, although it’s as adventurous and epic as one would wish. No bad at all.

‘The Heartless And Loving’ exemplifies my main criticism here in that it sounds very much the same as the previous tracks. A little further into the album and I’m struck with the combination of ‘Electricity’ and ‘I Will Not Change’ that meld into each other beautifully (when I played these 2 tracks on my radio show I didn’t realise that both songs had been played, and asked my producer to play the second song…). ‘Electricity’ is a contemplative beauty with a fragile vocal backed by an electronic hum and most delicately keyboards, and beyond a distant drum beat. Then a gathering storm is seamlessly unleashed with the arrival of the superb ‘I Will Not Change’ with its glorious blanket guitar riff choruses. This time the melody is of gargantuan proportions, the vibe is highly emotional and hair-raising. This combo of songs is one of the best I’ve heard this year. Other standouts include the heavily rock ‘Hope Street’ that again majors on melody, the more restrained rocky vibe of ‘Home, Run (1997)’ and final track, a turbo-charged and epic version of opener ‘The Edge Of The World.’

I can best sum up this album as ‘almost great.’ As a debut it’s certainly one of the best I’ve heard from a UK band, and it’s wonderful to hear band reflecting on real life experiences in such an open way. I now really look forward to seeing the band perform live later this week.

4/5