Band : Pipes And Pints
Album title : Until We Die
Label : Wolverine Records
Distributor : Sonic Rendezvous
Release date : November 2009
Release : CD

This Czech band was forged in 2006 by founder Vojta Kalina (Highland bagpipes player & singer) with the dream to combine Punk Rock with dirty Folk music, in a same way as the Pogues used to bring. Guitarist/ singer Tomas Novotny (formerly of Who Ate My Skate) shared his vision, but adding Country and Rock ‘n’ Roll to it, and together they saught out the people necessary to start the band. After releasing a demo the band toured in Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia) throughout 2007 and 2008 both as headliners and as support of The Porters, Society Parasites, and others.

However, the line-up of that time had different ideas about the band’s future, and so a line-up change was in order. In came lead singer Syco Mike (ex-Mugshot), drummer/ backing singer Lukas Vincour (a former Punkhart member, among others) and eventually the band was completed by old friend & bassist/ backing singer Ondra Balvin (of Super Pilot, formerly of ElPaso). Before the joining of Ondra, the band had recorded a new 5-track EP in December 2008, an EP which upon release in April 2009 was well-received and lead to the boys hitting the road with it in May. It was actually while on route that the band added Ondra to the line-up. The band then continued a continuous assault on stages everywhere, many of which were on festivals. Meanwhile, the band had caught the eye of German label Wolverine (who’d already put a track of theirs on their Saints And Sinners compilation in early 2009), and…

…here’s the full-length debut (revisiting 4 songs off the last EP, one more off their demo, and adds no less than 8 other tracks! The album, I regret to  say, immediately got a bad reception in Belgium, when our leading Rock & Metal magazine went and called it a Dropkick Murphys rip-off! Textbook example of the reviewer whom lives in a world of his own, and takes that as a template for everything he encounters without taking the trouble to check where a band comes from (and I’m not talking nationalities here!). “The rough vocals ain’t exactly good”, he says…but they’re supposed to be just like they are, seen as the band itself has the Pogues and not the Murphys as example, right!? “Songs a bit too common to sound really interesting”? “Little variety hearable”? “Bagpipes making everything sound alike”? I mean, has this guys really bothered to listen to Until We Die more than once? True, the bagpipes àre a very strong and overwhelming musical instrument and the riffed guitar parts show little variety, especially pace-wize…but it’s them Highland bagpipes that be the lead/ solo instrument here, my lad.

By all means, one should make up his/her mind him/her-self! So listen to the…8 (eight!) tracks (one of which only does nót appear on the album) the band posted at myspace.com/pipesandpints! A band which plays a show per week (average is slightly higher, and about 1/3 of the shows were festival appearances) must be doin’ sómething right, ain’t that correct?

88/100

Tony.