Dark Music Review – Black Sheep
Review Written By Casey Douglass
Sanguine were a band
that I’d not even heard of a month ago. Some light YouTube music
video watching before a gig at the start of the month presented them
as probably worth watching live but I'll admit that I didn't
instantly click with them. After seeing them live however, I came to
appreciate them a whole lot more.
Sanguine is a 4-piece
metal/rock band that hails from Devon and is made up by Tarin Kerrey,
Nick Magee, Matt Feld, and Ross Andrew, and they put out some
seriously ear-worming tunes. Since Black Sheep arrived around
five days ago, I’ve listened to hardly anything else. That doesn’t
often happen to me so I know it has well and truly penetrated my
audio gland. I think the standout feature of the music for me is lead singer
Tarin’s vocals. She has a syrupy sweet voice in which she sings
many of the lyrics of each song, but in other instances, she drops
into an amazing rip roaring yell. In some tracks, this yell almost
seems to take on an “overtone singing” style aspect, managing to
be both light and dark at the same time. The best way I can describe
it is that, mid bellow, Tarin’s voice could probably flay the skin
from your bones, but also kiss it better at the same time. The
interplay with Nick’s growly shouted vocals that frequently occurs
throughout Black Sheep is also a most welcome dance of sound,
bouncing off each other to create interest and impact.
As far as the broad
feel of the album, there is a decent split between the more rawkish
heavy songs and the more chilled and quietly introspective ones. The
opening track “Breaking Out” gets things off to a flying start,
the warbling swells of guitar, punchy drumming and Tarin’s amazing
yells punching the listener in the gut and saying “Listen up!”
The next few tracks are also in the heavy punchy vein, from the
ear-worming “du op du op” (for want of a better word) section of
“Pretty Girl”, to the bombastic drums and catchy riffage of “Save
Me”, they are songs that are best played at a volume loud enough
for you to feel the vibrations through the floor.
Track five “Carousel”
sees a slight departure from the heaviness, a quieter and more
playful track in which the vocals and tempo do a great job of
creating the audio impression of the titular carousel. It’s a
rousing track, and the crescendo around the midpoint is another
seriously ear-wormy bit of music, the guitar solo, pluckiness and
drums carrying the lyrics into your “Rattle around my head for the
rest of the day” mental space. The other quieter tracks are also as
skilfully made, the ethereal “Do you see me” lyric of “Breathe
Out”, the airy vocals and gentle guitar of “The Blue” and the
slowly building euphoria of “Whole World” are all fantastic
tracks.
If I had to choose a
favourite track (and I haven’t mentioned every track above), it’s
a tough choice between “Breaking Out” and the titular album track
“Black Sheep”. I think “Black Sheep” edges it. A rumbling
heavy start is joined by Tarin’s sweet vocals with the odd touch of
rawk. She is soon joined by Nick at the chorus, which is where she
goes full supersonic. I particularly liked the lyrics of “Black
Sheep”, the distorted whispers of Nick saying: “I feel like I
don’t belong here” and “The people who surround me wouldn’t
notice if I died.” These words all tap into various dark feelings I
am sure many of us feel or have felt. The context of Tarin’s
screams takes on the extra aspect of pent up rage and frustration if
you really focus on the words. Nick, by coincidence, found a
dead sheep on Dartmoor and had recently been given a crash course in
bone carving. The end result is the carved sheep skull on the cover
of the album that was a perfect fit for the already decided album
title of Black Sheep. I love these kinds of dark coincidences.
Well, I seem to have talked myself into liking “Black Sheep” even
more than when I started writing this section. It’s funny how
analysing why you like something can increase your sense of
connection with it.
If you couldn’t tell
from the tone of the last however many words (around 700, don’t be
lazy Casey, use the word count tool!), I really rate Black Sheep and would give it a fantastic
5/5. If you enjoy bands with a good range, catchy songs and darkness
seeping through even the most light-hearted of words, Sanguine are
well worth checking out. Their music videos are also well worth a
watch. You can see the video of “Save Me” below with interesting
footage from director Tyson Wade Johnston's award winning sci-fi
short film 'Lunar' :
You can also watch the
lyric video for “Black Sheep” below:
Be sure to check
out Sanguine live if the opportunity arises. They are an energetic
band that know how to put on a show, as you can hopefully see from
this gif I created from footage I was able to record at their
Norwich gig:
Visit Sanguine at their
website here for places you can buy Black Sheep and other merch like
cool t-shirts and caps.
I was given a free copy
of the album to review.
Album Title: Black
Sheep
Artist: Sanguine
Genre: Metal
Release Date: 29th January 2016
Label: Omn Label
Service
