Terris

A review of the album 'Learning to Let Go'

Terris are a rock band. There is no doubt about that small fact. Not only are they a rock band, they are one who don't respect modern music as we know it. Their debut album 'Learning to Let Go' is an explosive, angry work. Musically the band are tight and the snarl of singer Gavin Goodwin is intense in the extreme. There are a number of gems on 'Learning to Let Go'. These include the bands second single 'Fabricated Lunacy' which is a fresh rhythmic song and the mellow, laid-back 'Shapeshifter' showcases the singers voice to the full. The absolute highlight of the album is the final song 'Deliverance'. This song starts funkily and builds up by degrees into a most insane song. By the end the manic vocals are being spat out by Gavin Goodwin - 'I won't hold on to the hate let go...' A furious, desperate, angry and intense song. Also a brilliant one.

Goodwin's lyrics are strange ones. While there is no doubt that they are well crafted and that the man has a way with words, there are also times when they seem more than a little over the top. The man seems to have a fascination with big words and while there is nothing wrong with that, he seems to be making his own job harder. You try to find a word that rhymes with 'implicitly' or to sing a phrase such as 'deliver a dilapidated decree'. It has to be said that he pulls it off with style though. Some of his less tongue-tangling lyrics work wonderfully. Take the intense 'Cannibal Kids' where Gavin snarls 'as we're chewing on the gristle / of a love that's rotten in the middle' or the bitter 'Windvain' with its refrain of 'it's such a cosy coffin that he's nailed you / watch the worms begin to weave their way through you hair'.

Overall this album is a promising and exciting debut work. The band are intense, loud and funky in all the right measures. The music is very fresh and immediate. It might be said that the band are just a little too pretentious for their own good, but presuming they continue to deliver work like this, that can be no bad thing. Unlike the pretentiousness of a band like say, JJ72, this band actually have something brilliant to relate.

'Learning to Let Go' rocks.

Niamh Grimes