Demos

Kalena - The March Riots

Russ Essom 00/00/0000

Rating: 4/5

Kalena, according to what I have read, have gigged in nearly every city, town and village in England, at it therefore sickens me that I've not heard of them before. They're ruddy, bloody good: believe.

This is indie rock 'n' roll at it finest, laced with stony, punky undertones. The first tune on their five-track disc, “The March Riots” is entitled, “Past Comes Back”, and I love it marginally more than I love my parents. The word 'cool' is about the only adjective I can attach to this belter of a track; you really have to listen to understand.

The next song, “One man riot”, is equally as wonderful, with a gorgeously incremental intro before the main riff and vocals snipe you from behind. This one has a more free-flowing aura, which I seriously dig, and a more forced vocal sound, which fits perfectly with the clean, crisp guitar noise. I was, thus far, totally blown away by this CD, and things only got better…

The next song, whose name, “Emeight” would take a specialised degree to pronounce, probably needed the same to produce the amp settings it features, the crunchily sexy distortion, croaky and whiny voices, and comfortably throbbing bass guitar riffs mould into each other like… I don't know what, but very, very well. It is the sort of song that, if this band got shown on MTV2 or the like, all the kids would want to learn on the guitar, and show their friends, and their families until eventually the entire country is swept under by the sheer brilliance of Kalena.

Anyway, I digress… the fourth track is “Laced with stone” and strangely, sounds exactly how a song with that title should - I appreciate that may be a difficult concept to understand but trust me: I shot a doctor.

“Your Loss/Our Gain” concludes the CD in spectacular style, being by far the most guitar driven track on the disc. This track is something of a riff-fest, and each one is every bit as good as the next.

I think my work here is done, too many words will ruin the magic of these boys; do what you know is right - get the CDs, see the shows, make them massive.

http://www.kalena.org.uk/