You can practically taste the sweat in the air upon first listening to the new EP from Pretty Vicious.
From the off, from man exiting his carcass coated cave into the dawn and thumping his scarred chest with primitive instinct, it’s captivating. ‘Cave Song‘, all groove and gusto, more spit than sugar thanks to shaking guitars and screeching vocals, always catches the chords off-guard, tons of catchiness thrown at the wall, a perfect single and also introduction number for the epnoymous EP.
‘Down My Way‘ embodies the band’s belief in the heart and soul of the guitar, its power and its potency as an instrument of truth. Not once losing its pop charm, the melody is strong, the bass catapults and cannons through the stomach of the drums – imagine some kind of zombie apocalypse or rave for the lunatics, peeling the skin off each other in an oddly poetic and ramshackle way.
Pretty Vicious have that appeal of being schizophrenic, torn and tortured but embracing the weirdness like a dystopian gang of heroes. There’s a darkness to the daylight in the tunes on this EP. ‘Ambien‘ comes across as a warfare siren before the nuclear drum bombs on the streets of a scumbag ridden city. The late bars, the early mornings, the salute to youth’s attitude.
It’s as though the vocals grow in strength as the EP pushes forward. It’s more psychedelic in places, more self-destructive as the blood reaches boiling point – one thing is for sure so far, one can visualise the audience’s reaction to all this in a live environment. On record they have that instant, automatic joyful noise; in front of people, the intimacy will really develop into something special.
‘Black and Blue‘ bruises the skin to a finish; a swampy stomp of drums and bass trudge through the sludge as maniacal screams suffocate in the distance like an asylum inmate cut off from his meds. It’s haunting, climbing greater heights as the blood, sweat and, most likely, tears work in favour of each other to produce an explosion of hard-hitting, razor-edged and precision-sharp dynamism thriving in the moment.
The band will be back out on tour taking them around the UK later this year – they will deafen you, go watch them.