Nine Black Alps - Everything is (2005)

The word of a snail on the plate of a leaf?

It is not mine. Do not accept it.

Acetic acid in a sealed tin?

Do not accept it. It is not genuine.

A ring of gold with the sun in it?

Lies. Lies and a grief.

Frost on a leaf, the immaculate

Cauldron, talking and crackling

All to itself on the top of each

Of nine black Alps.

A disturbance in mirrors,

The sea shattering its grey one ----

Love, love, my season.

The Couriers, by Sylvia Plath

Ok, after a long break, I've decided its time to write about one of my favourite bands now. Sorry to whoever was waiting for my posts, I'll try to keep them regular from now. :-)

For now, something a little more approachable to most people. Nine Black Alps, from the United Kingdom, and named after a line from the above mentioned poem, and with their first album, again. I actually have a thing for bands and their debut albums, before they get currupted by their fame, record companies and just generally loose focus. Yeah, happens too often.

Anyways, coming to Nine Black Alps' debut, titled "Everything is", is, I'd say a very very good Grunge/Alternative/Hard Rock album. Sure, it's not ground breaking or even anything close to it, but just simple rock songs. And the thing is, Sam Forrest (vocals, guitar), David Jones (guitar, bass), Martin Cohen (bass,guitar), James Galley (drums), have made it sound so fresh and.. uhh.. "un-boring" that you find yourself singing along to their songs while listening to them on a crowded bus (much to the amusement of the fellows around you). Also, astonishgly, even with the 2 acoustic tracks on it, the record never sounds "poppy", like some of the other "Hard Rock" acts out there do (for the extra bucks obviously). There are a lot of harsh and heavy riffs (Ironside, Not Everyone), along with some tracks with harmonies thrown in (Unsatisfied, Shot Down) and as I mentioned, a couple of acoustic tracks to round things up. All the tracks are between the 2:30 - 3:30 minutes, making sure the album gets done before you've reached your destination and you start to feel that itch to listen to the whole thing once again, cause it was just so good but you dont even remember listening to it.

The guitars are really good all through out the album, with plenty of riffs and fills and "grungy" noises, and strong, loud drums, nice thick, audible bass and Cobain-esque vocals are just perfect for this sort of thing. The songs themselves are straight forward and keep up the pace pretty much all the way through. Vocalist and guitarist Sam Forrest writes some throught provoking lyrics about modern society, war and the ideals that we're forced to conform to (probably inspired a little by Sylvia). Nothing new again, but there are some really good lines to found in every song ,especially in the acoustic tracks.

Well, this is a really good album is almost all aspects, and Nine Black Alps were on their way to super stardom, (some even called them the next "Nirvana"). But, sadly their follow-up albums didn't really match up to the debut. They are still very good though, but just not "Everything is".

This is one album that needs to heard by anyone who likes a little "rock" in their music.

CLICK HERE to Download the album.

Band's Official Website and MySpace page.