Statement – Monsters (2014)

Statement was born out of the Danish Metal scene in 2011, with members coming together from a number of existing bands and brought together by their love of Classic Hard Rock: the likes of Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Metallica.

What we get is a wonderful album where you feel the band is letting off steam while creating some great heavy Hard Rock, with lyrics that centre around vocalist Jannick Brochdorf’s  early life where “drugs, drinking, depressions and a tough party nights in the city, was a great part of his life” Musically ‘Monsters’ is immediate, and both grounded enough to please a Hard Rock audience and Heavy enough to entice Metalheads. Starting out with ‘Kill the Times/Monsters’ there’s a great groove, wonderful backline and some nice guitar, all laying the foundations for some great attitude-laden vocals.

It’s tracks like ‘Say Hello’ where you really hear that love of the greats, simple guitars, great delivery, it’s a song that captures that feel that the best Hard Rock gives – the feeling of freedom and passion. The softer ‘Crawling’ takes the pace down to deliver a ballad of substance, while ‘Keep you Alive’ has a chugging riff that brings the Metal but retains the melody. ‘Dropzone’ too has a heavier dynamic and cool Metal riff while ‘Control’ relies more on a great harmony.

This is a great album that never lets up, nor does it fail to impress, with each and every song worthy of inclusion. Like every album you’ll have your personal favourites and for us one of those is ‘Childhood Dreams’ which channels the attitude of bands like Skid Row via Metallica through a classic rock looking glass. The album ends strongly too: the slower ‘To Be a Man’ starts off slow, searching, reaching before the guitar busts into life just as you hoped it would.  ‘Another Stage’ the fastest song here sees the world from the stage, with a bristling riff and injection of melody before possibly the strongest chorus here has you singing along and banging that head.  ‘I Need to Know’ lessens the pace somewhat before the melancholy ‘Dad’ ends proceedings with the most emotional and personal song here. Statement is certainly a band to watch and have produced a fine debut. Definitely a band to watch.   

01. Kill The Times
02. Monsters
03. Say Hallo
04. Crawling
05. Keep You Alive
06. Dropzone
07. Control
08. Childhood Dreams
09. To Be A Man
10. Another Stage
11. Back To Live
12. Need To Know
13. Dad
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