In the past I’ve mentioned that I like to write a music review by using two methods. Either make a clever word play or pun using the album title, or by using an anecdote about how I came across the band or something that makes you remember them. The latter would more than likely involve a packet of minstrels and some on-stage dry humping, while the former is a little inconvenient since I barely know any French (and have to Google the phrase to find out the “De L’Amour” means “All About Love”).
The Croydon trio have a live aura that sometimes is difficult to bottle into something even vaguely similar, a problem encountered by even the biggest bands over the years. And yet Bad Sign manage to fill their début LP with the same energy that has been unleashed upon stages up and down the country. One second bass player Joe Appleford’s hypnotic melodies and gravely vocal tones pull you in, only for Jon Harris’ crushing lead guitar lines to blow you into next week. Trying to pigeon-hole the band into one sub-genre or another is difficult at the best of times. It sits in that dangerous middle-ground, an abyss between the metal and rock fraternities, but twisting between breakdowns, old school solos and just a complete and utter me-lee blur the boundaries between the two. If De L’Amour were a person, it would be the one that could start a fight with himself in an empty room.
