Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To sit infront of a young band who has come out fighting on all fronts since their inception and knowing that each time they appear before you, they just get more sleek, more smooth and unbelievably good is a feeling that warms the heart of even the most ungracious of hearts.

For the four young men who make up Buckle Tongue, arguably one of the heaviest bands to come out of the Merseyside area in decades, the rationale of their performances is one that has not changed since the day they first left an impression on those who fell for their unremitting and unrelenting style. Buckle Tongue are quite simply a band that puts the heavy into musically heavy weight, puts the great into outstanding and who have in the last year become so streamlined, so efficient in their ability that they make a Captain of the much missed Concorde seem as if they were at home all this time playing with their Air-fix models and pots of lead paint.

To open up a night ahead of Decade surely must be seen as an honour and yet deep down you know as you listen to the machinery grumbling and the sound booming that Benny Chance, Shaun Ridge, Jack Somers and Jord Chance are not too far away from going out and decimating audiences with their great timing, thunderous roar and great lyrics as the main act themselves. Even for Liverpool, which doesn’t always see eye to eye with the truly heavier side of music, the audiences and cheers that Buckle Tongue are attracting is enough to understand that they are not just surviving in the city but they are positively thriving.

Opening up their portion of the night with the tracks Wayside, Tidal and the superb Grow, Buckle Tongue were relentless in their approach. If the o2 Academy was going to seriously rock out later in the evening to Decade then the constant beat, the thunderclap and lightning that accompanies the beating heart of a Dragon in flight, provided by these four young men was enough to bring the charge of the cavalry to the door, the sound of a thousand horses, whinnying, snorting in a distempered heat and hooves clattering on steel could not have drowned out Buckle Tongue.

With songs such as Embers and Hearts and Hands being greeted with the same enthusiasm as a plane dropping much needed supplies for a desperate nation, Buckle Tongue showed exactly why they kick at the door with steel-tipped boots and a battleship cruiser tucked under the arm, this is heavy stuff, this is remorseless and unyielding and long may they be so.

A great re-introduction to a genuinely fantastic band!

Ian D. Hall