Apologies, I Have None’s debut full length London is one of
my favourite albums of the last few years, if not ever. It’s an album full of
intelligently written songs that make you think and will have you singing along
at the very top of your voice. What I really loved about it was that this was a
punk rock record that was accessible to everyone. The hardest of punks and
someone the complete opposite of that could enjoy it. I believe the technical
term for this is that it has crossover appeal. As you could imagine I was
extremely excited when the band announced that they were releasing a new EP.
Then I saw some bad news from the band, co-singer, lyricist and guitar player
Dan Bond was leaving the band. What would this mean for the band? Would it
affect the sound? The departure of one of the key members of the band surely
would be a huge loss. The first time I listened to the new EP Black Everything
there was a huge amount of trepidation on my part. In all honesty on the first
listen of the EP I felt quite disappointed by it. This wasn’t the release that
was going to catapult them out of the underground and into the mainstream. This
was a dark and brooding effort very unlike the album I loved. With that I didn’t
really listen to it again until one of the songs from Black Everything – Raging
Through The Thick And Heavy Darkness Of A Bloodlust appeared on a few
compilations that I had gathered throughout the summer and it began to grow on
me. I decided to give the EP another go; this is what I thought of it.
Raging Through The Thick And Heavy Darkness Of A Bloodlust
is the opening track on Black Everything. The feeling of darkness is apparent
straight away with a slow, deliberate drum beat before drawn out guitar wails
kick in. Josh McKenzie (who is now the sole lead singer of the band) vocals
start of restrained before slowly building into an angst filled scream that
carry the song along. Raging is about struggling with anger issues and how such
anger can turn you into a whole different person. The song if full of some
great lyrics including “if I offered explanations they would barely break the
silence and would leave behind no reasons as to why I am unfound, a lost plot,
raging through the thick and heavy darkness of a bloodlust.”
Two Bombs In a Box is my favourite song on Black Everything.
It’s a slow tempo track that kicks off straight away with a very catchy chorus
of “how the fuck did I not see this coming? I should have known.” I imagine
that played live this gets a great crowd reaction. There is also a line taken
from The Righteous Brothers You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling at the end of the
song – “I’ve lost that loving feeling, not it’s gone, gone, gone.” I did smile
when I first realised that was included.
Coffee, Alcohol, Codeine, Repeat finds McKenzie in a really
bad mood. The opening guitar riffs sound like a darker version of the intro to
60 Miles, the opening track from London. I found the lyrics “she would always
be the answer, always be the cure and I thought if I ever got my shit together
I could try to be hers” to be very relatable. Sounds like how my mindset has
been for the majority of this year. The song is about trying to sort yourself out
for someone else before realising that that isn’t a healthy way to live, you
should try and make yourself better for you and you alone. A surprisingly positive
message in such a dark sounding song.
Black Everything is completed with the fourth song The
Clarity Of Morning. This is a slow building song that showcases McKenzie’s
voice at its angst filled best here. The Clarity Of Morning is about knowing
that you are making a bad decision one night and hoping it will sort itself out
the next day.
After giving Black Everything another go I can tell you it’s
definitely a grower. Every time I’ve listened to it I’ve found something new
that I love. Losing Dan was a big loss to the band but in Josh McKenzie the
band still has an amazingly talented songwriter to carry on the band and to
remain one of the best bands in the UK underground and the one of the best
bands the folks “above ground” need to hear.
Buy and stream Black Everything here: https://apologiesihavenone.bandcamp.com/
Now listening to 100 Club by Apologies, I Have None
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