Naming a band, no matter how much members might deny it, says a lot about the various members and, in more cases than not, the genre. You wouldn’t expect, for example, a jazz band to be named Impaled Nazarene, nor would you expect a pop band named Dimmu Borgir and so it goes. By naming your band Massive the implication is two-fold – one, that you have certain expectations of the number of fans you’re likely to garner and two, you have a certain opinion of your sound. In short, if you name your band Massive, you sure as hell better deliver on the promise the name carries.
As it happens Massive, fresh out of Australia and signed to the mighty Earache label (the shrewd force that also managed to get Rival Sons to sign on the dotted line), deliver on one of their promises straight away and, in recent months, have clearly been working hard on the second – the buggers are everywhere and with good reason. Possessed of a similar love for rock ‘n’ roll as their fellow countrymen Airbourne, Massive, nonetheless, have a wider palette, drawing influence from acts such as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin rather than the ubiquitous AC/DC, and the result is an eleven track ride that will have you hooked from the first song and leave you gasping for more by the time you arrive, sweat-drenched and exhausted, at the album’s eleventh(and final) track. It’s an album as cocky as its name, as self-assured as you might expect and packed so full of riffs it’s amazing the CDs haven’t jumped from the racks and ram-raided the nearest off-licence. In short, the soundtrack to your summer has just arrived.
The album does not mess around. Put the disc in the player and hit play and you’re immediately hit with a low slung bass, a cow bell and the terminal complaint of youth – “every breath we take we’re getting older…” and that’s all in the first fifteen seconds. By the time you hit the call and response chorus split between lead vocalist Brad Marr and the band in unison you’ll have pumped up the volume to earth-shaking proportions and leapt from your seat as if the fabric is on fire – indeed it took three listens to get this far into the review because the need to move easily overrode the need to write and it is only with a phenominal effort of will that I was able to still my moving limbs enough to actually concentrate on a keyboard. Add into the mix Ben Laguda’s taut guitar work and fluid soloing and you have a winner and yes, the band do indeed sound massive. ‘Hollywood’ sounds like classic Crue tightened up and covered by Altar Bridge, Brad a vocalist of range and power who oozes charisma, whilst the band lays down a monstrous canvass upon which he can daub his barbed observations. ‘Bring down the city’, opening in a haze of feedback, could easily come from Aerosmith’s golden period with its sleazy, mid-tempo grind, raw-throated vocals and fine solos all coming together in perfect harmony, whilst ‘one by one’ is a full-tilt blast that sounds like a cross between Motorhead and Guns ‘n’ Roses. Better still is ‘Big Trend Setter’ which opens with Jarred Medwin’s lazy drum beat only to turn into a hard rock monster complete with brain-invading chorus.
The Aerosmith influences return for Lacey which veers between a melodic verse which, production tricks aside wouldn’t have sounded out of place in the fifties, and a huge, chrome-plated chorus that gleams as the guitars blaze out. Album highlight ‘dancefloor’ is next and it does exactly what it says with its queasy bass line, four-to-the-floor beat and opening chorus line of “we’ve got the motherfucking dance floor!” In contrast ‘Ghost’ shows the band’s sensitive side as they lay down a hard rock ballad in the vein of Motley Crue’s evergreen ‘home sweet home’. It gives the listener a vital moment in which to calm themselves before the album explodes into gloriously Technicolor life once more and it also shows that Massive don’t need to be operating at volume levels high enough to shake the earth’s crust to pen an effective chorus. Opting for a bit of blues boogie, ‘now or never’ has Aiden McGarrigle leading the way, his excellent bass work taking the lead on the verse before the band come roaring back in on a chorus that is liable to set fields of people everywhere alight when the band takes to the stage. Opting to end on a high, the band opt for some high octane rock ‘n’ roll on ‘best of both worlds’, a hard-hitting, candy-coated monster with a chorus that Steven Tyler would kill for and a vocal performance to match. That simply leaves the title track to close the album and this it does in style with Ben once again tearing out a killer riff and challenging the rest of his band to keep up. They do, of course, and the result is a closing song that makes you summon your last energy reserves to dance along even if you hit your limit about three songs back – it’s just that sort of music.
Massive are, if there is any justice, going to be massive. They share Airbourne’s passion for beer and high-octane rock ‘n’ roll, but that’s where the similarities end. While Airbourne have opted to roll through AC/DC territory, Massive look out to bands like Aerosmith, Motorhead and Guns ‘n’ Roses for inspiration, drawing it all together to produce a sound that sounds as huge as it does invigorating. A double headed tour between the two bands would be a dream come true (are you listening, promoters out there?) but that dream aside, Massive are a band whose power, skill and attitude is second to none. In Brad Marr the band have a vocalist who can hold his own against the greats, sometimes adopting a Steven Tyler-esque rasp, sometimes an Axl Sneer, he has both the range and the skill to demolish these songs with a confident swagger. The band, meanwhile, are no slouches either. The performances here are excellent throughout, but special mention must go to Ben who is not only an excellent guitarist but a rare artist whose restraint is as important as his skills. No solo here outstays its welcome, and every note he plays is golden – it takes a rare talent to know so instinctively exactly when to stop thus leaving your audience always wanting more. The album itself is similarly constructed – no song outstays its welcome and no song could be described as filler and in forty-five short minutes the band hook you in and keep you there. If you love powerful and passionate rock ‘n’ roll, then this is an essential release, guaranteed to lodge itself in your player until the sun has long faded from our skies. Embrace massive – they are a band who entirely live up to their name.
