ALBUM REVIEW: Love And Rage – Shooting Daggers
SHOOTING DAGGERS have been making waves both with their live appearances for a while now as well as a number of well received releases and now is the time for them to unveil the next stage of their musical manifesto.
Love And Rage is the long awaited debut from the forward thinking queercore/post-hardcore visionaries and it definitely has been worth the wait for the band to unleash their fury onto their first album following those releases they had brought out beforehand, and while Love And Rage shares a lot of similarities with those previous releases of course, this debut is packed full of eclectic elements that show off a different side to the music of SHOOTING DAGGERS.
The London-based three piece (singer/guitarist Sal, bassist Bea and drummer Raquel) have delivered, in Love And Rage, a debut album that is a statement of all out intent and the aural firebombs that are the nine songs on the album don’t miss when hitting their targets, both lyrically and sonically.
The band waste no time in getting straight to the point with the rapid opening salvo of Dare and the immediacy of their music is even more evident here and this carries on throughout the duration of the record. With a strong lyrical prowess on Love And Rage, SHOOTING DAGGERS have a new collection of anthems that are ready made to be sung back at the band when they play one of their incendiary live shows, Not My Rival for example with lyrics like “we’re the new generation, that’s shakes things up, no more romance, we want revenge” will no doubt be a live favourite.
“Turn the pain into power” on the title track of Love And Rage is another rousing sentiment on an album packed full of them and the band deliver each song on the album with so much passion that you can’t help in getting swept away by it. Love And Rage races through with so much energy, with the breakneck pace of Wipeout in particular saluting the band’s hardcore influence, but this album has many sonic changes and the slowed down and all the more powerful for it of A Guilty Conscience Needs An Accuser is a perfect example of this.
The sounds of SHOOTING DAGGERS in this debut album are more varied on these songs but without a doubt still retaining that intensely focussed anger that they have made their name with so far.
Love And Rage is a vital and fiery album from a band who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe and stand up for what’s right. We need bands like SHOOTING DAGGERS more than ever and this album is not only a riotous call to arms, but a band embracing change in their own inimitable way and sounding all the better for it.
Love And Rage is the next step up for the band as based on the evidence of the songs here, the sky is the limit for SHOOTING DAGGERS and their positive anthems are delivered in the most fervent way on this album.
Rating: 9/10
Love And Rage is out now via New Heavy Sounds.
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