Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Despite being of a different era and genre, it has probably been said best by the erstwhile Heavy Metal band Megadeth on their Rust In Peace album, “A country that’s divided, surely will not stand.” It may be seen as pushing the boat out into the storm driven seas even further, of furthering the debate of what exactly Britain, more importantly England, stands for in the modern era, this once Sceptred Isle, a fortress in a sea of troubles, now, as the Bard noted in John of Gaunt’s death bed speech, has “..made a shameful conquest of itself.”

Glymjack’s debut album, Light The Evening Fire, is unafraid to take to task such thoughts of once noble nobility assigned to the country, and the wider world, and offers instead a staunch rebuke, an angry retort filled with the passion of a lyric writer who understands it is not treachery to condemn one’s own country when it is so blatantly wrong in its outlook, in fact it is the act of the patriot to remind those who abuse their power that they can soon be discarded to the history bin.

Greg McDonald’s words are enlightening, and alongside Steve Knightley, Phil Beer, Miranda Sykes, Evan Carson and Gemma Gaynor, the spirit in which this forced public speaker, flame in hand, the corner and the pulpit reserved with honour, comes out fighting is to be respected, it is hope in the darkest of places, that in the ignorance of humanity, someone has the positivity to say what has to be said, but can put it to a marvellously entertaining set of tunes.

In track such as The Wolf Who Cried Boy, Bows of London, Made in England, Little Blue Pills and Night Vision, Glymjack persistently and unwaveringly in their attitude, dig beneath the bone, it may seem unsightly, perhaps cruel, but as any surgeon will attest, if the muscle is infected and decaying, sometimes you have to brutal in the operation to stem the death of the remainder of the body.

A glorious debut, one that is unafraid, one that does not hold back in its assessments, vocal and those unsaid, and one to whom as they Light The Evening Fire, will understand that sometimes you have to cauterise the wound to move forward.

Ian D. Hall