By Jonny Bakes
While it’s great to be able to get my hands on releases from bands across the world, sometimes it’s nice to take a look closer to home. Now Cumbria may not be the first place you would think of for a thriving music scene, but that’s where you could be mistaken. What we may lack in large venues and such-like, we certainly make up for with a pretty large amount of dedicated talent. Of course, the real trick for these bands is to break out of Cumbria, that’s where the big challenge arises…
One such band embarking on this challenge are Vorstellan who have been making waves in the county and somewhat further afield. Having played a string of successful gigs in Carlisle, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow, it’s time for the Cumbrian alt-rockers to unleash their first full length album with ‘Encephalon’.
Overall, ‘Encephalon’ is a bit of a mixed bag but this is of little surprise considering the band’s long and varied list of influences! Claiming influences from Placebo, Silverchair and Gojira to name a few, it wasn’t very clear what I was signing up to when I gave this a first spin. It soon became clear that we’re looking at the kind of alt-rock that aims to be more emotive and thought provoking with very strong themes of mental health. The sound varies between the more mellow ballad-like tracks, that display real honest and personal experiences, and slightly heavier tracks that bring back teenage memories of listening to Three Days Grace.
Really driving home that general theme of mental health struggles is the narrated section that opens the album which portrays a therapist talking through a counselling session. This isn’t the last time we’ll hear from this doctor as he crops up again at other points throughout, but for now we head straight into ‘Monster’. This is one of the slightly more aggressive feeling tracks led by a pretty simple distorted guitar riff, giving me those Three Days Grace vibes. Jacob’s clean melodic vocals grab the attention here and this continues to remain the centrepoint of the songs with his emotional delivery.
Possibly one of the hardest hitting songs on the album, not because of its musical power but through it’s emotive lyrics, is the ballad ‘A Thousand Smiles’. This really pokes at the sensation that I’d challenge anyone to say that they haven’t felt before – putting on a cheerful exterior to get through the day when really you’d rather be left to try and process whatever it is that’s going on. It definitely comes across as one of those tracks that could become your “sad day” track (everyone has those right?).
The Vorstellan guys said they set out to create an album that was as open as possible, both in the lyrics and the music, with the hopes of encouraging others to come forward to seek help. And I think that they have achieved just that, this is definitely something that could strike a chord with someone who may be struggling. And let’s face it, right now there’s probably quite a few people who are in that kind of situation so the timing for this is pretty ideal. It’s one of those albums where you find yourself paying more attention to the lyrics than the music itself, as this becomes more of a vehicle to deliver the message than a focal point in its own right. For me, I’ll certainly have a far easier time remembering some of the vocal hooks than I will the riffs.
All in all, I’d say that ‘Encephalon’ does what it sets out to do. While this isn’t what I would normally reach for when picking my tunes, I can appreciate that it’s a pretty solid debut and should appeal to their target audience. If you like your music to have that emotional connection, with just a hint of aggression, and like your lyrics to resonate with the more difficult aspects of life then this would be something for you.
- ‘Encephalon’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.