{"id":23337,"date":"2014-11-21T00:00:47","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T00:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=23337"},"modified":"2015-01-27T17:02:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T17:02:54","slug":"album-review-lawless-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-lawless-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"LAWLESS – R.I.S.E (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAWLESS
R.I.S.E<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nEscape Music (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Blimey, these Lawless boys don\u2019t hang about; it only seems like a few months ago I was praising their solid debut album Rock Savage<\/em><\/a>, and now the boys are back for another bite.<\/p>\n

For those who never saw my review from the 2013 opus, then let me quickly fill you in by saying that Lawless is a mighty fine UK rock band from Stoke-On-Trent, featuring Demon members Paul Hume (vocals \/ guitar) and Neil Ogden (drums), alongside former Persian Risk guitarist Howie G. and HeadrusH bass basher Josh Williams. <\/p>\n

Lawless is basically a straight up melodic metal act that will appeal to fans of all good, traditional 80s metal. So, if you like Ronnie James Dio and Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath<\/a> then you\u2019ll lap up the Britishness of this hard, driving sophomore effort. However, it\u2019s not just a record full of grit and determination; the band also provides harder edged anthems which have more in common with 80s US giants such as Dokken.<\/p>\n

The sound is formed around those cool, weighty guitar licks of Howie G., who takes tracks such as \u2018Pain\u2019 by the scruff of the neck and turns them into brooding masterpieces \u2013 the crunchy nature of the riffs reminding one of George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob) as they develop.<\/p>\n

With R.I.S.E<\/em>, I expected to hear ballsy rock to the maximum, and that\u2019s what I got; \u2018Rise\u2019 seems to take the melody of The Beatles\u2019 \u2018Come Together\u2019 initially and metalize it, and by the time we come into that simple, chanted chorus we\u2019re finding ourselves wrapped up in a fiery dose of British metal, hinting at the likes of Saxon too.<\/p>\n

Nothing beats a hard slab of defiant rock which unites fans and casts off sweat by the bucket load, and as the tracks keep on unfolding in their metallic glory it\u2019s clear that the way to the heart is via such unassuming heaviness. \u2018Twisted And Burned\u2019 chugs with menace, but in contrast ‘Song For A Friend\u2019 offers subtlety, again hinting at Dio at his most majestic.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, there\u2019s the bluesy acoustic swagger of \u2018Kiss My Glass\u2019, the mid-tempo fire of \u2018Dead Man Walking\u2019, and my favourite brace of tracks being the steady powerhouse of nod of \u2018How Long\u2019, where Hume excels himself vocally, and the bass-led churn of \u2018Is This The End Of The World?\u2019, which is a classy slice of energetic rock. <\/p>\n

In a sense I knew what was coming with R.I.S.E<\/em>, but there are times when consistency is such a major factor, so I\u2019m thankful that no frills heavy rock bands such as Lawless exist to remind us just how earthy and molten British metal is. Hopefully, R.I.S.E<\/em> is the start of something big for this quartet and that a steady rise to power will eventually give Lawless the success they deserve.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAWLESSR.I.S.E Escape Music (2014)Rating: 8.5\/10 Blimey, these Lawless boys don\u2019t hang about; it only seems like a few months ago I was praising their solid debut album Rock Savage, and now the boys are back for another bite. For those who never saw my review from the 2013 opus, then let me quickly fill you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[654],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lawless"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23337"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23364,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23337\/revisions\/23364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}