The Beat Surrender

London based punk band Vatican DC release there first album Make it Ride on 14th May. Influenced by punk, dance and rock. The lead vocals are provided by Steve (Irish Steve to his mates!) who claims influences are as far apart as Terry Hall, Robert Smith, The Pixies and The Dammed.

If they sound like any of the above, it would be The Pixies, which is fine for me, as I would list them on my top ten. They have recently supported Block Party, The Rakes and The Prodigy and have the dubious honour of being one of the few bands to support The Prodigy who haven’t been bottled off stage. They went down so well with the audience they have been asked back to support them again.

First couple of tracks Wow and Sparks are good old fashioned in your face punk, fast manic guitars with vocals to match. Sets the mood for the rest of the album nicely, Side To Side has a more indie rock sound to it, slower more controlled vocals, great beat with a catchy chorus thrown in. Envisage This, as a future single would sound good on the radio. Fountainhead, big big guitar intro combining with keyboards, weirdly has a touch of the Dr Who theme running through it. Another catchy track, which would sound great live or on the radio, the Dr Who bit grabs your attention.

Keep On Cutting and She Takes Me Out were again loud brash punk. Bugs is a much softer track, good beat, mental lyrics (but who cares) a really polished track, not my favourite but a good runner up. Make It Ride and Not Your Fault speed up, so much it was hard to keep up with the lyrics. Information was probably my favourite track, loved the drums, great beat, good lyrics etc. This is a track I imagined going down well on an indie night, good dance floor track, really catchy.

Danger To Myself more punk with attitude, strange backing vocals however this track grew on me and was another of the stand out tracks. Last track was The End Is The Beginning, now this was a strange track, much much slower, even sounded a little country (perhaps that was the harmonica) jumped between country to 60’s rock. Thought it was standing out because it was so different then realised it was because it’s a dammed good track.

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