Lampwick - Lampwick

Lampwick

Lampwick
self-released; 2015

3.5 out of 5

By Stephen Jordan

Smooth yet rocking guitar riffs and biting percussion pulled me in to "Birds of a Feather" the first track on Lampwick’s self-titled album Lampwick. The vocals of the lead singer definitely took me by surprise. It immediately put me in the decade of the '80's and reminded me of David Lee Roth and Bon Scott. He changes his voice so many times in the first song I didn't know what to think. Overall, a very solid high energy song.
 
Lampwick peeked my interest with the first song, but it unfortunately did not last long, as I was introduced to the second song "Sunburst." It is essentially a six-minute ballad that turns into a ridiculously hard hitting metal song. The lead singer ends sup screaming at the top of his lungs leaving them bloody and bruised. 

"Crab Grenade" is much more my style and quite frankly the bands pulls it off better. I love the fast rhythm, and during the first verse it reminded me a little bit of a band like Primus. I guess it was a bit of a stylistic change I wasn't expecting, but I loved it. Very sweet riffs on the bass guitar being played as well as some pretty stellar rhythm guitar work. Well, the whole band was on point with this song. It was one of my favorites on the album.

"Wretch" begins with a somber, moody bass chord progression. The guitars are my favorite aspect of the production on this track. And once they exploded with energy and the vocals were screaming - I was pretty taken back. What a contrast between this and the next track  "Milk And Honey." Another one with booming energy and the vocalist here sounds angry and I can feel the emotion. It's like a good slap in the face. And with that being said, I particularly enjoyed the first half of this album more than I did the second half although "Cloud 9" and "Bloodlust" are heavy hitters that strike a chord.

Not every song worked for me but there's enough interesting instrumentation and raw guitar play to outweigh the negatives. I will say that this does not feel like a typical rock or 'screamo' band. 

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