Band: Radio Alcatraz
Release: Populous: In The Belly Of The Beast (Album)
Release Date: 01/08/2012
In the space of about 18 months, Radio Alcatraz have done pretty well for themselves. They have toured relentlessly in their quest to seek out a decent fanbase and build the necessary hype and reputation around themselves. In doing this, the band have also played alongside one of the leaders in the political punk category, Anti Flag, a move which surely helped to cement them a fair few fans.
‘Populous: In The Belly Of The Beast’ is the band’s debut album, which (considering their timescale) isn’t bad going really! Citing some of their musical influences as Refused and At The Drive In, Radio Alcatraz are essentially your standard politically-charged post hardcore/punk outfit.
Album opener ‘Oxford Code’ is a decent way to begin: it sets the tone for the rest of the release and encapsulates the album’s themes and messages well. It is an anger-fuelled, intelligent track that begins slowly with an easy guitar riff from which the rest of the song explodes out from within the space of 30 seconds. At times, Radio Alcatraz do seem to drift into the territory of repetition, with little to differentiate one track from its predecessor. Despite the notable flaw in this, it has to be said that this fact does highlight the stand-out tracks well, such as ‘Corpus Capitaneous Learning Curve’, ‘Doomed 1940s Airman This Is 21st Century Air Traffic Control’ and ‘Running Through The Stitch’.
‘Corpus Capitaneous Learning Curve’ is by far the real favourite of the album, bordering on flawless. After the intense and highly energised previous tracks, this begins at a much slower pace with Simon Griffiths’ vocals becoming softer and slightly haunting. This quieter pace is mirrored in the guitar riffs which automatically become gentler to allow, for the first time on the record, the drums to take a bit of prime position.
This new found pace doesn’t last too long though and within 90 seconds the pace is picked up to the level we have come to familiarise ourselves with within just the first four tracks. Throughout the rest of the track there is a tug-of-war effect between the opposing tempos; this juxtaposition makes it a much more powerful and prominent song as well as giving the band another dimension to their sound that we had so far yet to hear.
Album closer ‘Fear Of A Supernatural Dictator’ almost perfectly complements the first track: it mirrors it well with the use of angry yet thoughtful lyricism teamed with the same energy that we have seen throughout the entire album.
‘Populous: In The Belly Of The Beast’ is a pleasing debut from the London based Radio Alcatraz, despite the setback of the notable repetition between some tracks, but this is made up for by the sheer energy and thought behind each and every track. Radio Alcatraz may not be described as the most original band – in fact this is pretty much exactly what you would expect to hear from a political post hardcore/punk band – but it’s clear what the band are trying to achieve and for a first release this certainly has potential.
7/10
Reviewer: Amy Jones
