| CD REVIEW S.K.O.R. |
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Band : S.K.O.R. Not to be confused with the French Metal act by the same name (from Proville, near Cambrai, Nord-Pas-de-Calais), this band's members are from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and a small Belgian hammock called Neundorf (situated just underneath Sankt-Vith in SW direction), who started the band in January 2009. Their name an abbreviation of Some Kind Of RockEarlier in the year the band went into the Concrete Records studio(sounds familiar but no, our editor-in-chief has not yet started his own recording studio!) to record their debut EP, and finalized the mixing and mastering in the latter part of July. Meanwhile the boys seem to have found their way in the music world of their vicinities in the world. While already announcing the release of their EP to concur with a free show at Luxembourg's Rockhal (where they were joined by Kate, Agents Of Atlas and Anx74 as support bands), they've played seconds to the likes of K's Choice (@ Echternach's E-Lake festival) and Ben Harper (@ Luxembourg's Rock um Knuedler festival), and somehow or other members of the band wound up at Luxembourg's Atelier, during the afternoon when Alter Bridge was doin' a soundcheck for their evening show. Eventually S.K.O.R. Guitarist Marcel got onto the stage, performing the track “I Know It Hurts” with AB, without their usual lead guitarist. After the soundcheck Marcel got hugs from all 3 members on stage and a “I was so blown away...I don't know what to say! That was amazing,” from the singer! In other words, there's things on this EP which will turn some people's heads for sure! But now, about the EP...with the title in mind, and the introductory short-story (about a guy waking up after finding his town bombed and, found by some youngsters, helped into shelter before a second wave of air bombing) printed on the 3-page gatefold digipak package, you would feel justified in thinking this might be a conceptual album...something which is somehow confirmed by the song titles : “The Journey Begins” (an “instrumental” movie soundscape-like thing which seems to illustrate a background for the story, without voices), “Waste Of Time”, “Take Off”, the semi-acoustic (with nice calm “violin” keyboards at one moment, piano play at another) “The City Burns” (which only starts picking up energy in the last 90 seconds of its 6-minute 38-second duration, both with orchestrated keyboards and guitar!), straight-forward Heavy Rocker “Scars”, and closing track “The Awakening” all certainly seem to tie in with the opening info! Oh, for a description of the other songs, it's interesting to tell you that the bandname is an abbreviation of Some Kind Of Rock, this immediately indicating the reluctance of the band members (singer Pol Arlé, guitarist Marcel Arens, keyboard/ synth player Yves Weber, bassist Gerry Kolodziej, and drummer Luc Weber) to be constrained by genre definitions. In fact, with each member having his own background, the band tries to incorporate all those influences into their music. Cutting edge riffs encountering melodies and Straight (Heavy) Rock mixed up with Progressive elements...that's S.K.O.R.'s hybrid in the end! Now...to find music by this band on the Internet...(www.) skor.lu will put you on a page whence you can surf to the band's twitter, facebook, and MySpace pages, the trouble being that the first has no music on it (or at least not that I've found), that I apparently cannot log onto the second without signing in on facebook as a member (and I simply refuse to become part of such “social networking”), and that the music player on the third does not, for some reason or other, want to unleash its contents. However, if you'll scroll down the page on the left side, you will find two videos, one a “live” version of this EP's “Scars” (which, as stated above, is not the most typical for the album, although you get at least a hint at how the guys manage to insert some atmospherics into this otherwize more straight-forward track), the other a serenely calm short instrumental composed by the keyboardist, not from this EP! Short of ordering the EP, I'm afraid that's all you'll be able from this fine new band for the moment...unless you happen to be able to catch 'em at one of their upcoming shows. If any are forthcoming for the moment, that is, because I hear the boys are already making preparations for a next batch of songs to be released. Ah well, where there's a “Part 1”, a “Part 2” indeed seems to be in order! 90/100 Tony. |