Released October 6th
Roadrunner Records
9/10
The hype surrounding Marmozets has been considerable, culminating in performances at Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds earlier this year. With the release of their debut LP The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets, the hype can be believed and the title of the album proves accurate.
Instantly, the quintet from Bingley grab you by the balls and tell you that they mean business with the heavy and exhilarating opener ‘Born Young and Free’, following it up with lead singer Becca Macintyre’s angry snarl on the punk-riff driven ‘Why Do You Hate Me?’ The album offers plenty of heavy punk compositions by the Macintyre boys on drums and guitar and the Bottomley brothers on bass and guitar, with lead vocals and screams that make it seem like the world is ending. This is shown on tracks like ‘Cover Up’, which has a bizarre staccato chorus, ‘Vibetech’ opening with the strangest intro riff I’ve ever heard, and ‘Move, Shake, Hide’ which will please fans of harder, almost metal, music.
Sadly, towards the end of the album the anger and weight of the punk sounds begins to wear. Fortunately, the LP isn’t just filled with music that angry teens like to mosh to in dark venues with sticky floors and a ubiquitous smell of piss; it is varied by the slower tracks like ‘Cry’. The track swells from a slow piano lead song to a climactic middle section and down to a slow outro, with Becca showing some impressive and more subtle vocals. The final track ‘Back to You’ also has a slow progressive ascension into a cathartic and uplifting final jam from the boys of the band.
The cheeky and playful attitude (e.g. giving the coffee and tea makers a special thanks in the back of the booklet) of the band and the downright bizarre riffs on some of the album’s tracks are worthy of the title of the LP and differentiate Marmozets from other hardcore punk rockers. If they can keep up the rate they’re going at it, won’t be long before they are among the big names in modern rock.
