Fused is the fourth album from Ayrshire’s Sucioperro, which comes not long after last year’s The Heart String & How To Pull It, an album which I found to be a more poppy approach to their usual sound. It’s obvious from the get go that this album leaves those pop influences behind; this album is has a heavy feel to a lot of it.
Starting with River of Blood, which was released as a promo video when the album was announced, to much acclaim from the fans on twitter and facebook, the tone is set early on. The bass and guitar working together to create an incredible riffing force, accompanied by the steady drumming and the fairly odd, dark sounding harmonised vocals, the main vocals being low and fairly emotionless (I mean that in a good way). It’s an interesting technique, which works incredibly in this context. The lyrics are unashamedly not suitable for radio, something that is noticeable over most of the record. To Nothing features a slightly more familiar sounding chorus, more like the style of The Heart String. The whole bass and higher guitar played together sound works for me, it makes everything sound a lot more brutal than it should. Furthering the lack of radio suitability, What A Fucking Chump takes more of the awesome vocal harmonies and the awesome heavy riffing approach and hits hard. It reminds me in a way of heavier Oceansize, although slightly more polished. Pig Ravens basically sees how hard the heaviness of this album can be pushed with a dirty distorted drop tuned riff with powerful drums pounding throughout, while the vocals just glide over the top. Brilliant lyrics too.
There is another side to the album though, mellow songs like Rabbits In Boxes are quite calm and relaxing, as is Fused (although oh so emotional). On the other hand Where At Dat Wild At is pretty much as close to the more recent Marmaduke Duke album as you’ll get on this record, bloody funky with great melodies and some fantastic rhythm to it; definitely one of the highlights of the album.
Sucioperro are a band who I initially grouped with Biffy Clyro; hopefully no one will take offense at the lazy pairing there, partly due to the relationship between the band, but also the minor similarities. I remember listening to a Marmaduke Duke session on Radio 1 a few years ago and hearing the presenter ask JP Reid if he’d be watching Biffy on their upcoming tour, only to be told that he was busy with his band, who the presenter seemingly had no idea about, and thinking it was a shame that even when a side project was getting attention no one was paying attention to the brilliant songwriting of Sucioperro. Hopefully when the new album comes out they’ll start to take notice. I’ve actually started to love Sucioperro more and more these days, while my love of Biffy has slowly declined. The Heart String was an incredible album, yet this album, for entirely different reasons is just as incredible. It’s a heavier approach, but a) they’ve had heavy moments in the past anyway and b) they pull it off perfectly. Maybe if all you’ve heard is The Heart String then this might be a bit of a shock for you, but it’s worth it, totally totally worth it.
Daddsy
