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Concrete Bullet - Demo

Reviewed by Dave on 26th February 2008

Power pop sounds like such a dirty genre, a genre where bands that may have been considered “underground” are allowed to “sell out” and move into the mainstream, it’s generally bouncy guitar driven “rock” music with a sugar coated upbeatedness that may cause diabetes, but damn, Concrete Bullet make power pop sound so damn good.

Drawing influence from bands like the Foo Fighters this Leeds based quartet bring a hard rock edginess to the power pop genre and at the same time manage to be easily accessible to mainstream listeners.

Opening track ‘No Way’ is an angst fuelled pop punk number, driven by a pumping guitar riff and fronted by powerful vocals from Sarah this song about possessiveness is a good opening track, attention grabbing and foot tappingly catchy, although it does have tendency to lean towards being rather generic, with some frankly over the top guitar work in the background ‘No Way’ is an entertaining romp.

With an opening riff that is reminiscent of the Pixies’ ‘River Euphrates’ the second track ‘Keep Me’ begins with a slower pace but as the song picks up speed towards the chorus and Sarah belts out “But I’m out of my depth/ Aren’t you’re out of my league/ why are you still here lying next to me?” it becomes obvious that this song will be an instant floor filler and is by far the most enjoyable track on the demo.

‘Keep Me’ is also the most lyrically interesting song on the CD, dealing with the idea of paranoia within a relationship (as you may have gathered from the title), the lyrics give a desperate edge to the song (“You know that I love you/ The reason I don’t say it is that I don’t want us falling through”) and it is ‘Keep Me’ that displays so much of the band’s potential.

Final track “Forever” is a good old fashioned rock ballad, a brave move considering how difficult a good rock ballad is to pull off and how often it fails to impress, often overshadowed by the powerfully driving guitar riffs it is in this gentle ballad that Sarah’s vocal range truly shines through and we hear how startlingly easy it would be for the bad to take the UK Charts over with the right song.

When all is said and done Concrete Bullet are a more than capable hard rock band with the talent to go far and this demo just serves to prove that, it leaves me wanting so much more and is the first demo from this genre that I have truly enjoyed listening to.

**Photo by Jezz Gunnell, used without permission (sorry, dude, its awesome though)**

Rating: 9/10
Website: www.myspace.com/concretebullet

June Dennis says:-

I totally agree with this review.Concrete Bullet really do have talent ,ability and something special!their songwriting,composition and musical expertise are demonstrated admirably in this demo."Keep Me" really does display the band's potential and "Forever" creates an amazing pull of emotion.I heard them play 2 years ago at their first public performance in Leeds.As soon as I heard them I knew they had something special.

29th February 2008 @ 19:06:47 GMT