A strong album.
Blue Origin is a hard rock band from Stoke-on-Trent who on the back of a debut EP released in 2011, has now delivered its debut full album entitled ´Somnium´. The band is now a five piece comprising Nick Pilgrim on vocals, Mike Hawkings and Josh Sutton on guitar, Danny Higgins on bass and Thomas Eivers on drums.
After seven years of playing live “on the stages of every rock pub and dingy bar”, the band has created a cohesive and distinctive sound. It is full-on and at the outer reaches of melodic rock but falling just short of thrash. As a result, this is an album that takes a bit of effort to get into but the listener is rewarded with good songs and a constantly surprising delivery. The vocals have a certain charm and charisma to them and work well on the raunchy songs such as the third track, ´Blur The Lines´. The dual guitar attack is relentless - the riffs are largely dropped-D based and very industrial metal. Guitar solos also come thick and fast.
There are a number of complex songs contained in the album where there are changes of pace and interesting vocal arrangements; notably ´Whatever Happened´ where the backing vocals really help out the chorus. The standout track is ´Make Me´ which, dare I say it, is a power ballad with all the classic ingredients – acoustic intro, slow plaintive verse and catchy heartfelt chorus with a soaring guitar solo. It can´t be knocked; this song also works well because it is modern sounding with indie elements entwined in the classic rock template of the song.
The next few tracks make up for the slowdown in pace and it is clear Blue Origin is a hard rock band which does quiet stuff once in a while. The final track is a good closer with a very UFO-ish piano introduction leading to a guitar build up with a few roaring guitar elements before gently ending.
All in all, this is a strong album and Blue Origin has a number of tracks here that would work well in a live context. Here´s to hoping they play these in 2013 in bigger venues.
Rob McKenzie
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