Scarlet Rebels - Show Your Colours

Review by; John

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The beautiful country of Wales has given us some fantastic acts over the last few years and decades from Tom Jones to Shirley Bassey, The Alarm to Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals to Catatonia to name just a few, even Goldie Lookin' Chain. Now it has given us a new band who may just be the next big thing to come out of the Country... Scarlet Rebels!

 

With the arrival of New Wave Of Classic Rock, Scarlet Rebels, from the Valleys could be in the right place at the right time. Built on the foundations of VOID, the Welsh rockers are just about to release their new album "Show Your Colours", it's their first album although did release three albums under the VOID name.

 

They describe themselves as melodic hard rock. Having listened to this a few times over the last week or so I can say I'm enjoying it very much, they seem to have the balance between the melodic and hard rock down to a tea, and the album is very well produced. The album kicks of with a great guitar riff on "No one else to blame" definitely one of my favourite tracks from the album, and a great way to open up the item.

 

The second track on the item "You take my breath away" is a catchy little number, and if you're wondering... no it's not a cover of a famous song by Berlin. I love the vocals on this track, the chorus is a nice sing along which I'm sure will be a huge crowd pleaser live. Third track "Heads In The Ground" starts off a little heavier which is no bad thing. Great lyrics on this one, and a real foot tapper as well.

 

Just when you think you've got this album figured out, the next track "Part Of Me" takes the album on a country rock direction, I love the variety on this album. On to the next track now, and it's time for a rock ballad, brilliant. Every good rock band has to have a rock ballad. "Heal" doesn't disappoint, it has hit written all over it.

 

The quality of the album doesn't dip at any point, "Let Your Love Go", "Nothing To Say" and "Save Me" are all solid tracks. Singer Wayne Doyle's vocals are powerful and compliment guitarist Chris Jones perfectly, as well as the rest of the band obviously, Gary Doyle (drums), Wayne Esmonde (Bass) and Simon Townshend (Keyboards/Guitar). As a hard rock guitar lover I really do appreciate the work of Chris Jones, there are some fantastic guitar solos in here.

 

The next track "Blinded By The Pain" is another great rock ballad, and has all the great ingredients you'd expect from a ballad, great lyrics accompanied by great guitar solo and piano to set the mood. There are 14 tracks all in on this album and it just grows and grows on you. "Shattered Dreams" is a fantastic track, it's epic, and kind of reminds me of the sound of classic Bon Jovi album Keep The Faith.

 

"Can I Open My Eyes" is another country rock sounding song, "Returning Light" is an acoustic ballad which would sound amazing in an acoustic session. I'm sure they'll get plenty of offers from radio stations. The penultimate track "Losing End" is an upbeat number, and the last track of the album "Radio Song" has a more classic rock feel to it and is a great way to close an impressive album.

 

Has Wales found its next big act? It may well have done, Scarlet Rebels are certainly going to be ones to watch out for in the future. 

Show Your Colours gets a solid 4 out of 5.