PANIC CELL - review added 14th May 2010
Album Review: Fire It Up (2010)
For fans of: Metal... and LEGO videos
UK metallers Panic Cell - Luke Bell on vocals, Rob Hicks on drums, Bobby Town on bass, and Harjeet Virdee and Nathan Wood on guitars - are an established force on the scene these days. With two albums, Bitter Part of Me (2003) and the acclaimed What Doesn't Kill Us (2007) already under their belts, Fire It Up, again produced by Will Maya (The Answer, Breed 77), sees the band having a good stab at continuing their run of form.
I haven't had the pleasure of hearing their older albums, so come to this without back-catalogue-comparison. Assuming their previous releases sounded something like Fire It Up, I can understand the appeal behind this band.
The sound is heavy, devastatingly so in places. Imagine an extra gnarly version of Disturbed with a few other references and elements (even Coal Chamber) chucked in and you'll have the idea. The performances are absolutely first class. In fact it's bloody hard to fault the album. The only real problem is that there are few stand out tracks. As a whole Fire It Up is a beast. As individual moments it is less successful.
Yeah, we like this. It isn't perfection, but it is rather splendid all the same. Oh, and how f*cking good is the drumming?!
Check out... The LEGO video. Check out their MySpace page.
Track List:
01. Burden Inside
02. Unbroken
03. Lie to Me
04. Splitting Skulls
05. To Die for Love
06. Jaded
07. Down to the Next Time
08. Black Juice
09. Right Here Waiting
10. Forever
11. To Die for Lust
Label: Undergroove Records
Artist's website(s): Panic Cell , MySpace
