Live

Salvo

Liam McGrady 15/03/2006

I sometimes wonder if I'm wasting my time doing this, writing on here I mean. Who actually pays attention? Who really thinks “oh yeah, that guy on that website said they were good, I'll give 'em a go”? Very few people I'll bet. The same ones who regularly read the site probably give a band I rave about a little listen - maybe - and the passers by probably couldn't care less for my opinion; especially if I've criticised a band they like before. So a while back I was thinking that music journalism is all but dead; we might as well just have a picture of a band with links to their music so that people can just make up they're own mind; not have to trawl through something like this. But then I thought balls to that. If one person reads this, realises that I really mean it when I say that Salvo are dead, dead, fucking good, hears one song of theirs that makes them feel invincible, like running through walls (I might have said that before about Salvo but it's the best description of how their music makes me feel), then that's it, it's enough. So if you're still with me I don't care if you skip the rest of the review, as long as you take a miniscule part of your life out to listen to a bit of Salvo. Thanks.

Despite the fact that Salvo are about as out of place in this line up as George Bush leading the most powerful country in the world, and the fact that Aaron and Chris seem to be in disagreement over what some new songs are called, the band sound immense and don't pull any punches in front of a generally disinterested audience. Predictably, the tracks tonight from their two demos are bigger and played with twice, three times or maybe even four times the enthusiasm as the recorded versions, but it's the as yet unnamed opener that seriously takes my breath away. It is massive. More metal orientated than any previous material, it's like previous Salvo songs on a collision course with the back catalogues of Black Sabbath and Nirvana, coming out battered and bloody; more palpably angry than ever. And d'you know what? I'm not going to say anymore. I'd advise going to the unsigned section of this site, looking up the Salvo demo reviews and multiplying my reaction to them by around 7 or 8 (10's predictable) and that's how amazing they sound live.