The Beverleys

I wrote about sisters Steph and Joanna Lund and Susan Burke back in February,  the Toronto-based trio perhaps better known as the 160 km/h lo-fi - trashy (and thrashy) - guitar-fuelled indie-rocksters The Beverleys, who released as good a pair of records in their eponymous debut EP and follow-up single "Hoodwink" as saw the light of day back in 2014.

Shame that it took me until last year to realise it...

So with the band signed to the aptly named Buzz Records and releasing their - equally appropriately entitled - debut album, "Brutal" earlier this year, a pathetic mea culpa from yours truly wasn't going to wash. It's about time that I eulogised about this album... NOW...

The album opens with a rapid fire "twofreefour" and straight into "Bad company" - the song which made me sit up and take notice of the band in the first place. Loud, fast and a riotous wall of fuzzy, shredded guitars; drums - knocking out a ridiculously addictive beat - hammered to within an inch of their lives and Susan Burke's rasping vocals spitting out words like a machine gun might bullets... And while there appears to be no respite as "Kissing with braces" hits you with yet more fuzzy, distorted guitars and spiky vocals, it's as the song's chorus kicks-in that you get the distinct impression that the band put more than a bit of thought into both melody and song construction - it may fade to a cacophony of howling, wailing feedback and the girls may never have been introduced to a speaker they haven’t wanted to trash (thanks to Quick Before it Melts for that one) - but "Kisses with braces" hints at a band who offer more than four (distorted) chords and amphetamine-powered drums.

It's a theory confirmed by "Anyway" as subtle chord progressions and vocal harmonisations pierce the fuzzy backdrop created by the trio's by now trademarked sound of reverbed, distorted guitars and metronomic percussion, to create a grungy slow-burner of a song that starts off as a growl and climaxes in yet another whirlwind of howling feedback. It's a trick the girls also pull-off with "Spaced" - for all the fact that here is yet another riotous blast - scratch beneath the surface and again there is always something new to be discovered.

But it's while listening to "Visions" that I'm struck by how multi-layered and textural The Beverleys' sound is. Sure there's a wall of grungy and distorted staccato guitars, a blistering - take no prisoners - screeching chorus complete with shrieking vocals and pedal-to-the-metal fret-work, not to mention a heavily reverbed middle-eight (actually it's one of those breaks that if I don't catch myself, I end up playing air guitar along to); but then you notice the slight inflection in the vocals, the deft touches of guitar work - ably demonstrating that Joanna and Susan do a whole lot more than just pluck power chords or play their guitars whilst wearing asbestos gloves - there's an incredible complexity and depth displayed here and a song that tends to get subjected to the 'repeat' treatment - if only 'cos I'm trying to un-pick the song upon each listen...

...Which as the song segues in distorted feedback straight into "Stamp glue" can be a bit of a challenge... Especially since here is 1'25" of no nonsense - at times vicious - howling hooks and knock-out chords - enveloped in an inky blackness - and all jostling for space alongside vocals that sound as if they were recorded whilst inhaling helium and then looped backwards. This is a tune that expects no quarter and gives none in return, one that before you know what has just hit you is already disappearing into a vortex of growling feedback...

The mood lightens with "Lemonade" - an absolute belter of a track - with one killer of a cascading melody surfing atop an ocean of crashing guitars and pummelling percussion. While perhaps not quite as sweet as the drink with which it shares a title, "Lemonade" is light, frothy and arguably a nailed on indie gem which again suggests that the trio are more than capable of branching out should they choose (it's a trick that was pulled off with equal aplomb with "Dreams" on their eponymous EP).

Things turn sharply darker - moodier - and not to mention downright ugly as over rib-crushing drumming (it's probably about time that I doff my cap in the direction of Stephanie Lund's pulsating stick-work - for all the tsunami of guitars - her rhythmic back-beat is the glue that binds this tour-de-force of a whirling dervish of an album together) "Hush" delivers one huge threatening "fuck-off" to someone whose ears are probably molten, waxy heaps by their feet. This is as brutal a put-down as I've heard in a long, long time. If you wanted an example of the song that truly demonstrates the at times primeval rawness of The Beverleys' sound, "Hush" would be the one.

Which you could argue, equally applies to "Promises" as the song appears to stick close to this album's winning formula as it lets rip with staccato guitar before giving it the all guns blazing wall of fuzz and percussion. But then there's an unexpected curveball as huge gulps of melancholy envelope the sound and which again suggests that should they choose, these three are in it for the long haul.

The album closes with a song that would have been a shoe-in for 2014's playlist - if it wasn't for the fact that I only discovered it this. Here, re-recorded - but losing none of that frisson of excitement that made it such a breath of fresh air in the first place - "Hoodwinked is still a killer of a tune from which the most compelling of melodies emerges from the organised chaos and violent turmoil of shredded guitars, hypnotic drumming and growling vocals... This is a song which sounds as fresh today as when I first heard it and on an album full of stand-out hard-hitting anthems, this is still the cherry on top of the cake.

"Brutal" does what it says on the tin, delivering ten uncompromising tunes that whizzes by in under half an hour. If you've a penchant for diving head-first into a tempest of fuzzy, distorted fret-work and hard-hitting percussion-a-plenty - or are a keen student of that late-80s / early-90s grungy, lo-fi sound - you could do a lot, lot worse than shell-out for this album. However, to dismiss this album in such simplistic terms does both the band and album a huge disservice. Sure, this is an album that screams "Play Loud" (although I'd recommend ear-defenders), but amongst an apparent maelstrom of sonic destruction - not to mention codas that not so much fade as threaten to 'howl round' forever - there are cleverly constructed and detailed melodies, subtle nuances and more than enough depth and texture to suggest not only is "Brutal" a must but that The Beverleys are a band well worth listening out for...

The Beverleys
"Brutal" (Bandcamp), (Buzz Records)