Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Merseyside undisputedly produces some great bands of every music genre that it is possible to list and yet somehow in amongst the maelstrom and cacophony of disparate tunes and compositions, heavy metal doesn’t get that much of a look in. Very few bands have touched upon the field of crashing and brutal guitars placed within the heart of a superb drum beat and told the tale in Liverpool. From out of the darkness come the Wirral’s Buckle Tongue and one of the new great bands to watch out for in 2013.
The Metallica influence is undeniable and it serves the band well as an interesting take of the N.W.O.B.H.M. (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) influence of the late 70s and 80s and the more elegant and persuasive style of Metallica and Alter Bridge for example. The band hail from Ellesmere Port, the home and stomping ground of one of Liverpool’s favourite musical sons and genuine leaders of any Merseyside music revolution but there the comparison ends. To find a band like Buckle Tongue residing in the area in full sight is more than welcome, it is perhaps a necessity to show that the area really is a collection of incredible musical threads.
The four members of the band, Shaun Ridge on guitar, Jack Somers on lead guitar, the superb Benny Chance on vocals and Jord Chance on drums aren’t just fine exponents of a great track but they have the charm and grace to acknowledge they have a long way to go but what a journey it promises to be.
Playing at almost breakneck speed, the four lads from the Wirral played songs such as Grow, No Place Like Home and Take It All to a room of stunned appreciation. This is not the traditional Heavy Metal/Rock that you would have heard in the back rooms of Birmingham or London all those years ago, nor has it the splintering echoes that you would associate with the more sometimes cumbersome version of American Metal but it lies somewhere in between and for that Buckle Tongue must be congratulated.
A band worthy of taking the genre forward from a place you would least expect to find.
Ian D. Hall