| CD REVIEW Sixtoys |
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Band : Sixtoys The foundation of this Aarschot area based Belgian band goes back to 1998, when a bunch of friends (with influences from Rock to Punk Rock and Metal) wanted to begin making music together. With the help of some friends, they recorded a couple of early demos and started playing gigs in their neck of the Belgian woods. A first "real" mini-album, titled Copy, Paste & Repeat, was recorded in 2003 at the Dutch Studio 195, and it was released that same year through French label Craze Records. In Belgium, it was distributed by Funtime. Touring for the release took the band all over Belgium and outside the Belgian borders to France, Holland, Italy, and Austria. During 2005 Funtime expressed its wish to release a full-length album with the band, which ensuid in the departure of former lead singer and guitarist Hannelore, as she felt she could no longer give the band her 100% devotion, and preferred to give someone else that chance to proove himself (or herself). The band eventually chose for guitarist/ backing singer Jonas Vandenbroek to complete the line-up (further consisting of lead singer/ guitarist Jelle Janse, bassist/ screamer Peter Mulders, and drummer Peter Daems). After breaking in the new man into the new material, the guys entered De Studio with producers Jimmy Turbo and Dirk Miers to record Forbidden War (then mastered by the renowned Alan Douches at his New York West West Side Music studio), which was released in April 2006 in a co-operation with Craze Records. A video was shot for the album's track The Great Escape", and during the Summer the guys did an acoustic set in their hometown, as well as a lot of "normal" shows elsewhere in the country. In January of 2007 bassist Peter decided to broaden his horizons and joined Confuse The Cat, with whom he went on a German/ Italian/ Slovenian tour a little later. Broadening their horizons around the same time where also the other guys in Sixtoys, who felt that after dabbling in Screamo/ Emo Punk for so long, it was time for some changes, to incorporate some of the additional influences they'd been soaking up in the most recent years. They took off some time from touring in support of Forbidden War, and went back into the rehearsal room to jam out some new ideas, the result of which (writing new songs is apparently a tedious job for this band) was eventually recorded with a working title of Vince Black at GamStudio in July of this year (with Jimmy Turbo again at the helm as producer and mixer) in the form of 11 very nice songs which are indeed different from what the band did in the past. Overall, one might say the guys now move rather into an Alternative Rock field, as opposed to the Emo surroundings they were in before! Somehow the material is groovier than before, although I'm sure that, when you're listening to both albums in a row, you'll find matching points between the two. It's just that...the Punk side of things has now been dropped for a more Rocking thing, and with an emphasis on interesting intertwining guitar work as well! Overall things are still very energetic, but there's also a couple of calmer passages (check the great vocal opening of "Words Prophets Say" – and the wacky bass solo passage in same song – and the ending of album closer "A Toast, To Stagnation", which also has a significant violin inclusion courtesy of one Stijn Verdonck), and the use of vibraphone (which at first I mistook for xylophone) in the track "Prayer For The Damned" played by one Pieter Verreyken. Vocal contributions (where not from Jonas or Peter) on four songs come courtesy of Jeroen Berger and Bob Demarsin (no previous band connections known) and "A Toast, To Stagnation" (weird song titles, by the way...or what do you feel when hearing "A Toast, To Revolution" – the album opener, "A Tale Of Friends And Other Odd Fortune", "Code Name: Vince Black", or "Guns Out! Guns Out!"?) sees renowned singer Anton Walgrave (formerly with The Same, he's released 3 solo albums since 2000 and contributed to several other artists' works) contribute his vocals. For anyone expecting to find a continuation of this band's 2006 album, Sins And Sounds may well be a disappointment...but if you're somewhat broadminded, you will certainly appreciate the progress/ evolution this quartet went through! If you're just getting to know the band, and like their current material, a negative surprise may come when looking up the band's older material, or not...it all depends on your personal disposition, really! Find out about the music by surfing to myspace.com/sixtoys. Regretfully, there's only one track off the new album (alongside two off the debut full-length and one off the debut mini-CD – an additional song off the mini-CD can be found at www.sixtoys.be, and will show once and for all where these guys come from musically). 87/100 Tony. |