Click here for Fraser's Myspace page and all the information you could need, and remember to check them out live at The Boileroom in Guildford on the 21^st Jan.

They are relatively new to the music scene, yet in August 2009, they released their first single, a double A side, called 'Waste Of Time / Gunfire'.  The CD has four tracks, naturally including these two songs, plus 'Dead Ends' and a bonus extended version of 'Waste Of Time'.

'Waste Of Time' opens this CD with an early bluesy punk, aka Sex Pistols, sort of sound with fast, catchy guitar lines and vocals.  Conor, on lead guitar, has a very nice solo throughout this track, and Jamie provides the upbeat vocals that the track deserves.  Brian's walking bass shines through near the end of the track which helps the blues of the song to come to life.  Leigh's drumming is also something masterful to listen to during the guitar solos.

'Gunfire' brings a dramatic change to the CD, full of slower guitar lines and smooth bass melodies that play over a marching drum beat.  The song picks up as it goes on and is great to listen to when you are not sure wether you want chilled beats or something to dance to, as this provides the best of both worlds being not too heavy and not loo light all in one go.

'Dead Ends' starts to bring back the initial feel to the CD, with a fantastic guitar riff to open.  You start to get a feel that this would be an awesome band to see live, as you can clearly hear everyone plays their parts very well.

The extended version of 'Waste Of Time' is a great number to finish with as you get to hear the fast lines of the band once again and it finishes you off on a real high. This opens with a longer soft intro which helps you get more of a feel of the meaning behind the track.

Keep up the good work guys, and look forward to hearing more of you soon!

Recluse, a three piece band hailing from Cardiff, Wales, was formed in July 2008.

Since then, they have been described as a strange Queen Of The Stone Age, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Kyuss, Pearl Jam fusion, and have released their debut EP, 'Baby Monster', which GigReviewer.com have the pleasure of reviewing.

A pleasure it is indeed, as this 5 track EP is a fantastic work of music, where two of these tracks have been featured in a documentary about bikers going around LA.

The EP opens with 'Come On Over', featuring a hard hitting drum beat before the catchy, yet puncy, guitar riff pushes its way through the barricades.  As the riff flows and changes, the smooth, yet grungy, vocals interrupt to bring a fantastic start to the 5 tracks you are ready to hear.

The mood changes as the Baby Monster EP works its way through to the next track, 'Back In The Ground Again'.  This has a softer opening to the song, but gets heavier as it progresses.

A few harmonic hits, followed by yet more classic riffs bring you on to 'Lover', the third track, and you start to get a feel for the bands talents of working with different moods.  This is full of harmonising guitar, bass and vocal patterns.  The bass has a very nice part to play during the chorus of this song and really brings him out of his shell.

The EP is full of fast, rythmic guitar patterns and solos that punch through your head and stick around.  The pure meat and noise produced from these three guys are so strong that once they've peirced your head (and ear drums) you can almost feel your mind bleed... it's great!

'Stranger' has an awesome opening also and makes the EP flow into some new realms, still keeping up that ultimate feel that this EP produces.  This is no change when we approach the final song on the EP, 'Blue Room'.

This last track does make a change, as we sit back and listen to all the raw musical talent to everyone as they play there four minute instrumental track, filled with different lines of speed and catchiness before it runs out to a nice solid end that makes you want to hear more.

When Whisper In The Riot's EP arrived in a very professional-looking CD case (a surprising rarity amongst the endless seas of CDs wrapped in nothing more than A4 paper we receive here at Gig Reviewer), I dearly hoped the music within would match its glossy coating.

And did it? In a word, yes. Hell yes!

Opening track 'Just A Lie' fades in with a very sweet combination of melodic guitars and atmospheric effects, before we're hit in the face with the first of many tight-as-an-ass (not to mention catchy and headbangable) riffs. Passionate hardcore vocal stylings follow, though I felt they were too low in the mix, missing an opportunity to raise the intensity that much further. This is a minor criticism though, as it doesn't detract significantly from the overall experience. The guitar solo could also have done with a boost – however the rhythm section of this band creates such a massive wall of sound and makes such great use of rhythmic devices I would be happy to listen to it even without the solo! Overall a very satisfying track that demands repeated listens.

Track 2, 'The Spoiler', provides more excellent riffage, hitting like a punch to the face while remaining tight and demonstrating the band's great technical abilities. The vocals are again too low in the mix, but with a riff like the one at 3:28, who cares! There is also a nice tapping melody at the end (very well placed in the mix - just loud enough to notice without overpowering the rhythmic core of the band), as well as a beautifully dissonant riff and great tight finish.

'Wolface' (track 3) has a very nice intro, with another good atmospheric buildup into more brutality. Very nice use of the 12/8 time signature, creating galloping rhythms with more than enough variations to keep the listener's interest (very important given that time signature's extensive use in hardcore and metal genres).

'Culling The Herd', the closing track, is a much faster, thrashier effort giving way to more beatdownalicious hardcore pummeling, with interesting melodic motifs on top. The band remains tight throughout intricate and technically demanding riffing. Vocals are much more passionate on this track! The bridge section uses much lower dynamics, finally giving us a break from the pummeling guitars. This is followed by a very nice solo section incorporating soaring melodies and even fantastic shredding, and yet more beatdowny goodness to bring us to the end. This track was far and away my favourite, thanks to the tasteful use of dynamics giving the sections that followed that much more intensity.

Overall: Very accomplished metal players, great production, passionate vocals, excellent use of dynamics and melody particularly in first and last tracks. The additional enhanced CD content is a very nice touch too, with promising additional tracks ('Cardia Dynamis' recalls 'Death Of A Dead Day' – era Sikth, while acoustic track 'Follow Me And Fall' demonstrates great depth and musicianship), a full technical breakdown on the making of the album, and so much more. More bands should send us stuff like this – you get a hell of a lot of value for money with these guys! With a fantastic focus on the tiniest of details Whisper In The Riot are sure to see their star ascend within the hardcore music scene and beyond. Good luck to them!

Check out the band's progress at www.myspace.com/whisperintheriot

Misterkite are a West London-based indie-pop band. The single I will review below is called 'Bi-Romance, I Meant Love', and is available on Itunes right now! They are influenced by such luminaries as The Beatles, Arctic Monkeys and Oasis, and this is very much apparent after giving this 2-track single the many repeated listens it deserves.

Track 1, 'Bi-Polar Beauty', opens with a catchy (and not annoyingly so) melody/rhythm guitar hook which acts as a statement of intent and is sure to get live crowds dancing with abandon. The band make great use of syncopated rhythms, daring your foot not to tap and your body not to move in response. The overall song structure demonstrates effective songwriting skills, with a good amount of variation and a nifty false ending giving the listener a short-lived sense of release before the chorus (which compels repeated listening with great hook lyrics and guitar rhythm) repeats once again. The production is a little raw but Misterkite's songwriting skills and energy shine through nevertheless.

Our second track, 'Martyr', provides more syncopated dancy goodness. A cool use of background vocals and effected guitars create a tasty atmosphere behind the rhythm section's indie-pop grooves. The vocals, lyrics and harmonies are again excellent – it's hard to imagine a live audience resisting the urge to sing along, and again repeated listens are all but demanded of the listener.

Overall, this is a great demonstration of Misterkite's ability to craft effective, catchy, and danceable indie-pop tunes. I beg them to come down to Guildford in the future so I can see them live without breaking my bank account!

Check out Misterkite's Myspace page here.

Barricades Rise

The album kicks off to a great start, and makes you feel like moving the instant you press that 'play' button! This Creation, the opening song on the album, really does hit it off to a great beginning and sets you in good stead for what is still yet to come.

Aftermath, the second track that accompanies this masterpeice, shows off the talents of Jonathon Coates' vocal work, with beautiful ringing melodies that Michael McEntee brings in to the mix. The song was avaliable for free download until 22nd September 2009, and was a great example of what the album held in store.

Don't let that free example fool you though, the album holds different moods as you listen through, even though 'bringing you down' is more of a rarety on this album. It is a shame that the high melodies in Aftermath and Sleepwalker (the next track) are very similar, and you may not realise that you are on a new track! This is quite literally the only downside on the entire album!

Both Jonathan and Michael supply excellent dual vocal and guitar lines that work in perfect harmony together, which makes you want to listen to the album again and again. It is also a refreshing treat to listen to two acoustic guitars, with the occasional treat of bongos thrown in the mix, rather than bringing a full band together to make a complete album work.

The quality of the album is also superb, to think that they recorded in a small home studio set-up that they pulled together themselves.

Barricades Rise certainly know how to pull you straight in to a new song with their awesome riffs, and must be a treat to see them perform live. GigReviewer.com holds a gig listing for them, if you want to try and catch a performance, here.

The last track on the album, Wake, brings you in softly, and gradually pulls you back up, and Michael has a sweet solo, and both guys "take the blame" for a memorable finish.

GigReviewer.com would personally like to see more of this band in the future, and wish them every luck in doing well.

The album is released on 21st August 2009, and for a pre-order (at just £5) click here.

Actually, on more than one occasion, I closed my eyes and could see Noel Gallagher playing lead guitar. The lyrics tell a good story though - divorce is the start of a slippery slope to prostitution, via glamour modelling, apparently. I'm not quite sure if I believe that, but then I didn't believe Liam could walk faster than a cannonball either, and I still enjoyed the tune.

The opener is a Green Day-lite power chord led pop-punk racket with snotty vocals and a meandering bassline. The backing is reminiscent of a million other nu-school punk upstarts (Blink 182, The Vandals, MXPX etc), but while hardly unique, it's clear Pretend Girlfriend are an experienced bunch. The second track is in a similar vein, spiky guitar, bombastic drum beats and anti-pop lyrics. Ironically, the gravel-voiced singer sneers at one point "No need to mimic / No need to mime" - while Pretend Girlfriend might not be lip-sync friendly, their music is heavily borrowed from other bands.

The penultimate song marks a change in direction, with the band morphing into some kind of Oasis tribute act. A banal meat and two veg rock backing highlights the lead singer's desire to be Liam Gallagher, his tendency to distort words almost comical, making one think of the aforementioned Gallagher character on Bo Selecta' ("Sheeeeeiiiiiine, Meeeeiiiiiiiine, Breeeeeeiiiiine"). The track itself is a poor man's 'She's Electric', the tale of a dodgy sounding character who roots in your pockets if you turn your back for a second, tries to nick your girlfriend and perhaps worst of all, turns up at parties without any beer. The nasal vocals and frankly crap lyrics are so typical of the no-brain rock of the mid-90s you imagine Pretend Girlfriend to wear fisherman hats, think Shed Seven's break up was a tragic loss, and go on stage with a bottle of beer, a fag and an anorak on.

The final song is a return to the So-Cal punk style of the first two, but by this time it is impossible to hear that sneer without thinking of a two-bit Gallagher wannabe, who here also sounds out of tune and monotonous. The accompaniment is again tight and professional sounding but still relatively unremarkable. However, as derivative as they are, it is difficult to categorise Pretend Girlfriend, purely down to the fact that their influences are on a wide spectrum - pub-rock like Stereophonics or Oasis and pop-punk like Green Day or Blink 182. Unfortunately, Pretend Girlfriend are unconvincing performing either. Their songs are uniform and basically non-descript. Instrumentally they show talent, but the songs are simply not good enough to indicate any big future for the band. Any chance to impress is also marred by their frankly terrible lead singer, who needs to be told that to front a band you need to develop your own style and, more importantly, be able to hold a tune. Pretend Girlfriend may be listenable to in the pub on a Saturday night, but that's all they ever will be.

Voice seems to be a warm-up track, and isn't so much verse, chorus, verse, chorus - more like melodic chorus, nu-metal chorus, melodic chorus, nu-metal chorus. It's kind of cool though, with vocals reminiscent of Ian Watkins and Karl Middleton. Fortunately, both Kid and Better Times have verses, although Kid's laidback dub guitars for the verse don't go quite as well with the nu-metal tale of abuse being told as the heavier chorus does. Overall, Better Times is the best (and so really should have been put first in my opinion) -there's some ska, a bit of reggae, and I was sure I heard a Hammond organ.

On the whole, this lot show promise. They just need to mesh their influences a bit better, rather than just switching between styles whenever they need to, and realise that you can do a bit more with choruses than repeating the same line 5 or 6 times.