TIN SPIRITS Scorch

Out on Esoteric Recordings

Hot riffage is the key to the latest album from this Swindon band of free spirits whose core metal is pure gold.

Carnivore, a blistering guitar fest from Dave Gregory, formerly of XTC and Australian Daniel Steinhardt, opens this Santa Ana wind of an album.

Summer Now has warm, honey tones of melody rolling through a morning haze of salad days, while Old Hands has a wistful memory of lost love, closing with a guitar wail of anguished discord.

Wrapped and Tied is the definitive Tin Spirits, a nod to prog rock yet with a refreshingly honest and exciting mesh of maestro guitars, Douggie Mussard’s armegeddon drums and Mark Kilminster’s distinctive soaring vocals and not so bashful bass.

She Moves Among Us is a firey, feisty Flamenco feast of sultry, sexy guitar instrumental. Binary Man is a crisp, cool track of biting satire with sharp cynicism. It is a lyric-led message in a bottle thrown into the mix, bouncing along on a foamy white wave of a tune.

While Little Eyes is a sentimental and touching track showng the softer underbelly of rock.

Garden State, with its jazzy overtones and earthy guitar erupt from the scorching volcano that is the core of Scorch. - Flicky Harrison

Tin Spirits play at The Vic in Swindon's Old Town from 8pm tomorrow, on Friday, September 26. Tickets are £5 in advance and £6 on the door.