 
Over the years I have managed to see Lostalone
on the live circuit a couple of times and also
listened to many of their singles but I have always
failed to see anything special about the band
and wrote them off a few years ago but they have
clearly been doing something right over the years
as they have supported the likes of My Chemical
Romance, Evanescene, Thirty Seconds To Mars, The
Darkness, The Blackout, Paramore and many other
high profile bands as well as completing many
sold out tours across the UK and now they are
set to release their third studio album ‘Shapes
Of Screams’ in just over a week’s
times.
A couple of tracks into listening to ‘Shapes
Of Screams’ my views on Lostalone seriously
changed, I went from expecting to hate the album
to instantly being hooked on the extremely random
and catchy songs that are featured on this anthemic
12 track album.
The album opens with ‘Crusaders’ a
song which sounds like it was wrote for a musical
and seriously shows of the song writing skills
of Lostalone as the guitars are powerful, the
drum beats are big and constant whilst the lead
vocals from Steven Battelle are fast paced whilst
Mark Gibson and Alan Williamson back him up nicely
with well placed backing vocals adding a huge
dynamic to the song, as the song reaches the 3minute
mark the band go all out laying down some catchy
sounds which are really big and in your face and
seriously show off these guys skills.
The opening instrumental work of ‘The Bells!
The Bells!’ is fantastic especially the
dirty guitar riffs as the band really go all out
unleashing as much sound as possible before the
vocals come in and the song goes down an big melodic
pop-rock route, the later part of the song is
crazy as the band harmonise the “ding-dongs”,
it may well sound cheesy but it is extremely creative
and something that Lostalone manage to pull off
wonderfully.
‘Hostages’ is a big beautiful pop-rock
number which reminds me so much of how Queen sounded
when they first started off all those years ago
with the big guitar riffs and solid vocal performance
which really does sound stunning. ‘Sombre
Party’ follows on nicely from ‘Hostages’
and is executed in the same style and happens
to flow with a massive chorus.
One of the tracks that stand out the most on the
album is ‘Guilty’ as the band open
the song by chanting the spelling of guilty as
the lyrics “G.U.I.L.T.Y” grace the
airwaves for the majority of the songs 3minute
37seconds duration, once again on paper it sounds
like the song is going to be lame but somehow
Lostalone manage to pull it off and help turn
the song in to one of the most memorable moments
on the album.
‘Mental Health’ is instrumental fantastic.
‘Apathy’ is a big sing-a-long number.
‘Scarlett Letter Rhymes’ see’s
the band go down the straight up rock route with
an all out stunning performance. ‘I Was
Born To End This Way’ and ‘Requiem’
are both catchy anthems, whilst album closer ‘Breathing
In The Future Exhaling The Past’ see’s
the band return to the more mature sounding rock
sound with a huge group vocal performance at the
end.
I feel that ‘Shapes Of Screams’ is
one of the most diverse sounding albums I have
ever listened to in my life, there is just so
much going on that you need to listen to the album
a few times over to really start to appreciate
it, for the majority the album is a big fun ride,
in places things get cheesy but somehow Lostalone
always seem to manage to pull it off and no matter
how cheesy something sounds they manage to put
a big positive spin on it.
If you are a fan of Queen, Muse and Elliot Minor
then seriously give ‘Shapes Of Screams’
a listen as it has clearly been influenced by
all of these bands and much more.
5/5
Review by Trigger
|
