The Beat Surrender

I Hate Sally started out as a three piece punk band, but after adding to the line up, they changed their output and found their natural style with this album, which was originally released in the band’s native Canada in October 2006.

“Don’t Worry Lady” has a nice doomy start; it’s a real promising intro. At first I was unsure about the vocals, as I’m used to a much a much deeper voice growling away like this. As always, I refer the reader to John Tardy’s vocals on Obituary’s “Cause Of Death” to hear how a master does it. Funnily enough, “Don’t Worry Lady” reminded me of Obituary’’ classic, it’s classy and thematic (without being a blatant rip off). They are their own band with their own ideas.

Due to the higher pitched vocals on “Don’t Worry Lady”, Dee Prescott’s singing can at first sound a bit like a petulant teenager crossed with a screaming woman. It does quickly grow on you though, and soon won me over – stick with it.

Musically, the album is built around some great rhythms, with rapid spurts and the aforementioned doom riffs throughout. This is a tight band with skilled guitarists and the drummer is superb, employing crisp, busy drumming to full advantage.

And it’s not just distorted powerchording all the way through the album, they use samples, solos and some atmospheric strumming to full effect, giving the songs more depth. As a result of all this, I was nodding my head and tapping my pen on the first listen – and I’m not easily moved.

There are some long songs on here; we like that, bands shouldn’t be afraid to play for over three minutes at a time – there is a trend out there for these little short songs that don’t have time to go anywhere. This, however is a band more interested in writing songs, not singles. There is a lot of energy in the songs too – I bet the pit go mental to this lot. One to whack up loud.

I HATE SALLY? APPROVED.

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