Holy State apparently spent three years working on (in their words) the “honest songs” on Electric Picture Palace. Perhaps they got fed up with each other or maybe they ran out of ideas, for despite many recent gigs and a promising 2009 EP, the band announced their split before the album’s release and cut back their tour. That aside, the band have emerged from the currently fertile territory of Leeds with an urgent, unapologetic punk sound - then used it in spades on a series of shouty, concise tracks. The punk ethos is evident as all the tracks clock in under four minutes, giving the album energetic pace throughout.
‘Ride’ and the desolate title track set the tone for the album, driven by frantic drumrolls and chugging guitars. Single ‘Dial M for Monolith’ continues the aggressive style of the first two tracks, mimicking Kurt Cobain on the doomy vocals; the snarling lyrics in the darker yet slightly more tuneful ‘Sultan of Sentiment’ riff on love songs and shallow emotion. ‘Brain Caves’ initially suggests variety with a wailing trumpet note, but soon turns out to be another onslaught – it’s still full-on, but the instrumentation becomes more lively, with heaps of discordance and spiky guitars and brass again at the end.
Halfway through the album (once you’ve turned the LP over - there’s no CD release) ‘Lady Magika’ turns down the noise, with melodic vocals and guitars and sparser percussion, and writing in the style of Arctic Monkeys - “you had a clear vision/vanished like an apparition”. It’s followed by ‘Love Tames The Wild’ which is similarly well-developed. For the remainder of the record, Holy State turn back to punk, apart from the brilliant diversion of ‘The Ego Raiser’, an XX-style instrumental break. These tracks show off the band’s talents to greater effect, but the relative similarity of the other tracks forces Electric Picture Palace into love-or-hate territory.
Originally published at Dale & Co.
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