Style: Alternative Metal, Nu-Grunge (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Loathe, Soundgarden, Black Peaks, Paramore
Country: UK
Release date: 20 September 2024
Newcastle upon Tyne, England, has given us a lot of important innovations: the Greggs sausage roll, the steam locomotive, the Greggs vegan steak bake, the windscreen wiper… Greggs1. Home to my alma mater2, it’s also a beautiful city from the leaf-shaded tranquillity of the Ouseburn Valley to the iconic bridges that span the Tyne to the mouthwatering aromas that pervade Grainger Market and its endless parade of exotic cuisines. Newcastle is also extraordinarily important to the history of heavy music: Venom, a band credited with birthing extreme metal, formed in Newcastle, and Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Sting (The Police), and Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music) all know the fog on the Tyne3. Hell, the “God particle” itself, the Higgs Boson, is named for Nobel Prize winning Geordie, Peter Higgs. Where does Silhouettes, the sophomore from expat Geordie foursome Giant Walker, stand in the history of the Toon’s achievements?
Well, it’s not quite as important to the fabric of the universe as the Higgs boson, but that’s hardly an insult. Silhouettes builds impressively on the potential demonstrated on their promising yet slightly undercooked debut, All in Good Time, delivering a combination of alternative metal, catchy rock hooks, and grungier flavours that satisfies immensely. Vocalist Steff Fish has a timbre and power redolent of Paramore’s Hayley Williams at times but without sounding derivative. That sense of melody and emotive force is applied to a much heavier guitar sound, equal parts modern British alt metal in the vein of Black Peaks and older grunge acts like Soundgarden.
Fish is the obvious initial stand-out here, able to turn her voice to anthemic hooks, moments of vulnerability, and with a great sense for those little affectations that sell a line. However, guitarist Jamie Southern creeps up on you: with a deft ear for tone and groove, his weighty riffs have a sense of attack (“Halcion”) and alter between simple-but-effective (“Use On You”) and greater complexity (“Make Me”), but he knows when to mix it up too as with the switch to a clean-tone in the outro of “Silhouettes” which is overlaid with a gorgeously bluesy lead lament. “Round and Round We Go” delivers another bluesy solo but in a far more raucous register, while on “Use On You” Southern opts for straightforward heavy metal licks. Meanwhile, “So You Say” provides the album’s alt rock jeremiad, more like an early Paramore track but, y’know, heavier.
There are some nice little time signature experiments such as the switch between a 3/4 groove on the verse of “Make Me” into a half time 4/4 chorus or the polyrhythm on the verses of closing number “For What It’s Worth”; the rhythm section, Jordan Gregory on bass and Alex Black on drums, go about this timekeeping in an unflashy and reliable manner, bestowing a more hard rock/grunge sensibility in their more restrained style. Gregory’s bass reverberates thunderously, while Black provides the headbanger material.
Indeed, while Giant Walker are an incredibly tight quartet, they nevertheless play it a little safe. The riffs riff, the vocals go hard, you’ll headbang your way through, but it’s the moments when the band define themselves against type that truly shine, such as the end of “Silhouettes” or the more rhythmically complex subtleties of “For What It’s Worth”. I’ve become the defacto British proggy alt metal reviewer now and my critique remains the same: El Moono, Vower, and now Giant Walker—all are impressive bands in the process of cementing their sound, but none quite hit the giddy heights of Black Peaks’ All That Divides or the ambitious genre-blending of late Arcane Roots. Maybe asking for more from the scene seems greedy, but all these bands label themselves as “progressive”, and yet all three seem a little fearful to step outside the established Brit metal scene’s confines.
Be that as it may, with a stellar vocalist and some intrepid guitar choices, Giant Walker may well be the most successful of the emerging groups in the Brit metal scene, and Silhouettes packs a punch during its meagre thirty-eight minute runtime; the leap forward in confidence from All in Good Time bodes well for yet another leap forward in future. In ten years time, when we talk about the leading lights of the Geordie metal scene, Giant Walker may well be the first name on everyone’s lips.
Recommended tracks: Make Me, Silhouettes, So You Say, For What It’s Worth
You may also like: El Moono, Vower, Palm Reader
Final verdict: 7.5/10
- Attentive Geordies will note the absence of Newcastle Brown Ale, Newcastle United Football Club, and Geordie Shore. I can assure you, none were an oversight. ↩︎
- I wasn’t a poly I was, er, the other one. ↩︎
- You might think the fog on the Tyne is yours, but it’s actually Lindisfarne’s. ↩︎
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Label: Church Road Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Giant Walker is:
– Steff Fish (vocals)
– Jamie Southern (guitars)
– Jordan Gregory (bass)
– Alex Black (drums)
