 
My God how long have we been kept waiting! Seeing
as its 2013 and the last release from these Gibraltarian
greats was in 2009, that’s 4 years! If I
hadn’t seen them in 2012 with Ill Nino and
then 2013 with SOiL and Fozzy then I would have
thought they’d split up! Now back to the
point, Insects from 2009 was a tremendous release
with the title track that was ripe with exotic
sounds and raw power that buzzed around in the
ol’ noodle for years that I still know every
word for to this day. It’s great to have
connected with them now as back in 2006 when I
saw them support Ill Nino the first time I completely
ignored their existence, but now I adore them
and even my girlfriend walks around singing their
cover of “Zombies” all the time. Now
having heard that since this albums release in
March, lead vocalist Paul Isola has left the band
after serving as the bands lead vocalist for the
last 17 years, this has filled me with a great
deal of sadness and I hope this album will reflect
on his legacy with the band.
I’ve chilled out and let the thing spin
round a fair few times now and am ready to give
my verdict; the album on a whole is great, it’s
less on the aggressive self which I wouldn’t
normally say is a good thing but with Breed 77
whilst the other albums have had a degree of aggression
present throughout they’ve always been ones
to show a vast range in style and this right here
with songs like “Low”, “Broken
Pieces” and “Drown” really pay
tribute to the extensive vocal range that Isola
possesses. I personally have a big connection
with the second half of the album more than the
first, it’s all fantastic but I feel the
likes of “Higher” and “Face”
really steal my heart simply due to the melodies,
they just really draw you in with their sweet
tones.
This brings my review to an end and I am more
than satisfied with what I have heard here and
I do feel that this is a fitting end to an era,
the era of Paul Isola and he can be proud of everything
he helped this band to accomplish. Whilst I hope
they have the best of luck with their new singer
for me this band will never be the same to me
again, changing a voice is so hard to do and the
longer a person fronts a band the less likely
they are to cross a new one over. That being said
they’ve had a bit of a low following here
in recent years so maybe this will be a new beginning?
Time will tell.
4/5
Review by James Webb
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