Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Power Within Ourselves lays deep, it is the way that it comes out, the way emotionally it finds a way to rage and scream whilst at all times being sensuous and alluring, without this power we can only shrink in to ourselves, we can only find that the doors shut and the windows become locked; we have no power to break the cell down if we neglect our voice and the muscle, no matter how robust, in which to get our point of view across.

This robustness of voice is carried out with stunning artistry by Backbone Cast’s Hannah and the elegance of sound provided by Hata Salmi on guitar, Jony Oittinen on drums, Sami Vataja on bass and Jan Kemppinen’s expressive keyboards. It is a fusion of power that really gets to the point of Blues Rock, a Scandinavian treat on the scale of tsunami rushing headlong into the stoutest of cliffs and natural defences; the resulting boom might appear to be loud but the thrill of hearing it batted away as easy a softball with an oak tree somewhat giving a rise to imagination knowing that the toughest of souls can withstand nature for a while.

Backbone Cast take the five songs on the short but immensely enjoyable E.P. to a height that fits in perfectly with the ethos of Scandinavian Rock and Blues over the last decade, a sense of struggle that once faced such bands but which was eventually broken down by forward thinking and accepting minds, is now to be looked upon as a fortress, a stronghold, almost impenetrable, a bastion of good taste.

In the songs You Fool, Forever, All My Life To Give, Like There Was No Hurt and the E.P title track Power Within Ourselves, Backbone Cast not only roar out of the blocks as if a hurricane was underneath the bonnet but they don’t stall, they don’t freeze and whilst the finishing line is forever in the eye-line of the musicians driving the E.P. vehicle, they go on past the finishing line and race on towards the next stop, sweat driven, fear inducing, a powerful exchange of ammunition; this is the bastion of music to die for.

Ian D. Hall