| CD REVIEW Chasing Hazel |
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Band: Chasing Hazel The formation of this somewhat weirdly named Carterton (Oxfordshire, UK) based outfit goes back to the year 2006, when drummer Kevin Trethowan and guitarist Daniel Searle, with influences coming from previous bands (mainly Hardcore, apparently) and the likes of Pearl Jam, Mike Patton, Korn, and Deftones, wrote their first two songs together with every intent on forming an active band! Singer Mark Hayton was the first to be drafted into the ranks of Randall Flagg (as the band was then called), soon followed by second guitarist Simon Cresher. Although still without a bassist at that time, the band allied with two former members of Oxford heavyweights Xmas Lights to record their self-titled debut demo. This demo gained the quartet (who would soon grow to a quintet with the addition of bassist Christopher Young) an opening slot on the final Oxford Zodiac Metal Night and airplay on BBC Radio Oxford’s program The Download (where an early version of the track “IT” – now also on the debut album – even won a “Track Of The Week” voting poll), following a “Demo Of The Month” review in Oxfordshire music magazine Nightshift. The band attained almost immediate local success, hightened even further with a string of local shows in support of the likes of Xmas Lights, October File, Chokehold, A Day Called Desire, and Gehenna VII VII VII. The quintet went to Spalding based Studio 33, to record their second demo II Turbo (featuring the first versions of such songs as “Told Scott Mills I Love Him”, “Residential Zombie Apocalypse”, and “Shitty Mortgages (Lead To Sleazy Hotels)” – which, as you might’ve gathered from me citing ‘em, also made it to the album)with Neema Askari of Fell Silent acting as engineer/ producer. Following the release of that demo came another set of live appearances. When the dust those created settled down for a short period of relaxation, the band eventually (after much deliberation, and apparently loosing the services of bassist Christopher) decided to change their name to Chasing Hazel…and following that decision saw themselves approached by Casket Music, to which they then signed in June of last year. August 2008 saw the band cooped up at Bristol based UWE Studio for a first recording session, putting down most of the music, and the vocal guide tracks (among which also the contributions of one Alice Rogers on three somewhat surprising tracks – more later), all the while also making videos of the procedures…which they then put out on YouTube through their MySpace page for anyone interested to be able to follow, as well as posting raw versions of a couple of songs. Mixing of what was already there (I mean, the music side of things) began a month later, and in mid October the guys returned to the Bristol studio to lay down the final vocal tracks. The album was eventually finalized (after additional mixing and mastering) in early December, and the guys were looking forward to a February release… …which was eventually postponed to late April. Now, as you may have gathered from the intro, the band’s take on Hardcore is a somewhat weird one…one which needs repeated listening sessions to get into! The singer goes through several vocal styles, the main one a screamed one which occasionally approaches the squealings of a pig…but there’s also moments when he goes into a more “normal” mode, alternating “telling” passages with more sung ones, and there’s even one passage where his voice is put through a vocoder. On top, he gets a very varied vocal backing. The songs featuring Alice Rogers (especially “Insomnia”, “The Realisation Of Self Worth And Loathing”) are quite surprisingly different from the others, and welcome calmer passages! On top of an Ambient soundscape, you’ll find a luscious voice doin a spoken word bit that’ll simply melt your romantic heart! In the case of album closer “Diligo”, Alice’s contribution comes towards the end of a “normal” song…one which is somewhat calmer overal (also in the vocal department) when compared to the rest of the album, but still with a “normal” song structure. The band’s “Funk fused Hardcore” (as they call it themselves) has apparently been compared to the likes of Every Time I Die, Protest The Hero, and Dillinger Escape Plan, and if a combination of those sounds like something you might like, why don’t you just surf on over to myspace.com/chasinghazelmusic to listen to the three songs posted there? None of those containing the collaboration of Miss Rogers, you’ll have to go out to the record store to have yourself a personality meltdown on that incredibly “nice” voice (well, if you surf over to amazon.com, you might find one of the short samples posted there to contain sóme of her sexy voice, you know)! To date, no news has come about the band having recruited a new bassist, so if you’re from their area, and have become interested after listening to the music, why not give ‘em a call, try to get an audition? 87/100 Tony. |