By Jonny Bakes
Every now and again, a band that I’ve been recommended appears in the album review bucket at ÜRHQ and today is one of those occasions. Recently I was told that 1000mods are “dead good” and that I should give them a try, so when their latest release landed for review it seemed like the perfect time to follow that advice!
1000mods could quite possibly be one of Greece’s best kept secrets, although it appears that it’s a secret that’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep as their popularity continues to expand. Boasting streaming numbers into the millions, the band have come a long way over the last decade, from playing tiny basement venues to packing out arenas, in order to become one of the most successful Greek rock bands of the era. Their 2011 debut album ‘Super Van Vacation’ is considered to be somewhat of a classic European heavy rock album and their subsequent 2 albums received equally high praise, so it looks like I’m popping my 1000mods cherry at a pretty exciting time as I get to grips with the upcoming album ‘Youth of Dissent’.
From the very first track, ‘Lucid’, I can tell that this is definitely something that is going to have pretty broad appeal. Fans of bands like Foo Fighters, QOTSA, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden will all find something to enjoy here. There’s a bit of a clash of old and new here, grunge and modern stadium rock meets space rock to form this impressively catchy sound that could quite easily please all but the most stubborn of metalheads. Not only this, but each track comes with absolutely loads of fucking attitude to it, you know the kind that your parents always “accused” you of having when you were a teenager – that. The bass is fuzzy and low, so low in fact it’s on par with my first year uni grades, and the drums are pretty crisp which combines together for the perfect foundation.
Let’s talk highlights though, first of these has to be ‘So Many Days’. This starts with some super low bass that reverberates around your head which is accompanied by some distinctly QOTSA sounding guitar parts, this builds up into pretty chuggy doom-twinged crescendo which is almost guaranteed to get that slow head banging on the go. This is only two tracks into the album too, and we’ve already had two pretty hefty numbers so it’s a really promising start for the album for sure!
The next couple of tracks on Jonny’s highlight reel are ‘Less is More’ and ‘Blister’. The former could quite easily find itself with significant radio play in my opinion as it’s got more this great 90s alt rock feel to it, imagine something along the lines of Smashing Pumpkins and you’d be on the right lines. Sticking to the 90s vibe, ‘Blister’ takes a rawer approach which ends up with a grunge feel to it, instantly bringing forth distant memories of rocking out to Nirvana in your bedroom.
Unfortunately, things don’t last forever, and things take a slower, heavier turn as the album comes to a close with ‘Mirrors’. This track has riffs so chunky that you have to chew them, this is real stoner/doom at it’s finest. It’s a pretty instrument dominated track which gives the guys a chance to shine with some pretty impressive guitar solo work here, with plenty of distortion of course, and some thundering drums heralding the end of what has been an all-round great album.
So there you have it, I’m doing my bit to try and make Greece’s best kept musical secret just that little bit less secret by telling you all how good this album is. I could rattle off a long list of “for fans of” bands here, and in fact I’ve named quite a few throughout this review anyway. Basically, if you were a fan of any sort of big rock names in the ‘90s and ‘00s then there’s every chance you’ll find a space in your music collection of this album. Even if you weren’t, and you prefer your music on the more underground stoner/doom side, this will probably still appeal to you. Like I said at the start, it’s a bit like lots of worlds collided to produce this album so there’s bound to be crossover of appeal for many of you out there. I, for one, am certainly a fan of ‘Youth of Dissent’ and will probably be playing some of these tracks pretty regularly for the foreseeable.
- ‘Youth of Dissent’ is released on 1 May. You can get your copy HERE.
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