Hailing from Exeter, Bull See Red are a personable and energetic punk band who’ve apparently only been together for about a year and a half. ‘A Girl Called Murder’ is their debut mini album; it was originally released late last year on Lockjaw Records and it’s 8 tracks are an impressive collection of tunes.
Musically they’ve a fondness for anthemic choruses and simple but addictive hooks, with occasional shifts into crashing, meaty alt-rock riffs and softer ballad-like parts. A few obvious comparisons spring to mind; vocally I’m reminded of Ontario’s Billy Talent if singer Ben Kowalewicz were a bit more cheeky and self-deprecating. You know… if he were British. Apocalypse Hoboken also spring to mind; the snotty Chicago punks had a pugnacious but emotive attitude that also emerges in ‘A Girl Called Murder’. In some of the more low-key parts I’m reminded of Surrey’s defunct alt-rock three piece Reuben.
Enough of the comparisons, on to the songs. The eponymous track boasts a pacey and catchy chorus riff with some nicely contrasting minor key verses and harmonics; lyrically, though, it name-checks the band as well as the album which is a bit cringe-worthy, you know? Good tune, though, and all is forgiven with ‘Multi-Storey Massacre’, which has a ludicrously simple but brilliant verse riff. There’s only a couple of notes in it but it works well.
As the album goes on it becomes apparent that the songs are of a formula, with quiet/loud dynamics being a common technique, but this is no bad thing when they’re this solid. There’s a lot to like; for example, gang vocals are used to good affect in ‘Roll Royale’, and I can really see that being a lot of fune live. Every so often the frontman busts out a line that demonstrates he has more range than he tends to use (he’d probably hate to hear the comparison but his breathy style reminds me of Matt Bellamy’s performance in early Muse; for the record, I was a fan back in the day). The lyrics are very directly addressed and ambiguous but with the addressee never specified they remain open to personal interpretation.
Brilliantly, the album wraps up with ‘Pig Head’, an anti-Nazi ballad which if I’m hearing the lyrics correctly invites Combat-18 members (a group of far-right Nazi thugs) to kiss the singer: fucking genius.
By the looks of it the band have never played Brighton (although they did once play Hove, actually), which is a shame… hopefully they’ll pay a visit soon. They also have a couple of new EPs out which I’ll see about reviewing on here in the future.
Official site | MySpace | Lockjaw Records