Samarkind are a new band featuring frontman David P. Byrne (note the ‘P’; it’s not that one from Talking Heads) who, according to the press release, was part of “successful hard rock band Assassin” and a “featured vocalist in the movie Trick or Treat”.
Assassin, like Mr Byrne hail from Dublin and as far as I can make out had a brief career supporting big name bands such as Def Leppard. Their recorded output seems limited to an Irish compilation album in 1985 called Green Metal: New Irish Heavy Metal. The soundtrack to the aforementioned film was predominately written and performed by Fastway – the Fast Eddie Clark band.
That was then, this now and David P. does put in a damn good performance across this debut release. With a voice that at times reminds me of a restrained Glenn Hughes or Toby Jepson in his Little Angels guise, he is perfectly suited to this style of heavy rock.
Backed by Michal Kulbaka on guitar – a Polish born, Dublin based guitarist of some skill; Irish born Mark Dempsey on bass and South African Marius Applegryn on drums complete the line up.
So, what about the music? Well, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. The overall feel is of blues/rock/country influences coming together to give us an 8 track, 33 minute experience which leaves you wanting more. An impressive debut which should be given a hearing.
The music does speak volumes – the first track is ‘Black Rain’ starts of with a rhythmic drumbeat and builds into a slide driven rock song with blissful country undertones…listen to it and you’ll see exactly what I mean. ‘Sun Stroke Heart’ could have come from a Glenn Hughes (rock) solo album – it is that strong.
‘Skinny Rivers’ is another country infused rocker with a trademark Kulbaka short and sweet solo. Next the obligatory ballad ‘Good Man Call’. Pleasant enough if not outstanding. ‘Thru That Door’ brings us back to familiar ground with a straightforward rock song complete with nice, multi-tracked guitars.
‘Fire and Blood’ is a damn good song; quiet verse to raucous chorus and a laid back solo. ‘Touchstone Man’ is a well thought out, great acoustic blues song which reminds me of Jimmy Page’s playing on the Coverdale/Page album. ‘Blue Mountain’ wraps it all up with a mixed tempo song of high quality.
All in all it is a good album and if they build on the varied influences and continue to show this level of promise I will certainly seek out the follow up.
Samarkind realease their debut album on 24 November 2017.
