Having seen Brigade live recently as the opening band on the recent Fightstar tour (you can read the review via this link) I was most interested to see if a band who impressed me with their short five song set could also cut it on this, their debut album Dam right they can! 

Opening with current single 'Magneto' which is receiving heavy airplay on Scuzz at the minute and with its great riffs and catchy lyrics is a great move. This is a pop/punk crossover track par excellence, very much in the Sum 41 mold. 'Meet Me At My Funeral', which was previously featured on the bands last EP sounds bigger and heavier here on the album and is built around yet more guitar riffery. 'Assemble/Dissemble' is based around a pounding drum and bass line, with stabbing guitars allowing vocalist Will Simpson to show off his skills to great aplomb and gets the crowd pogoing!!! 

'Made to Wreck' was the title track of the aforementioned EP and the track the band opened with live and it’s easy to see why as it features a big spirally almost nu-metal  guiatrriff that is very familiar, before the main song kicks in and changes tempo and feel several times and Will’s angst ridden vocals top it off. ' I’ll Be Your Emergency' is the nearest thing to a ballad on the album but his played with a bit of balls. 'Go Slow' is another track driven by the bass and drums that reminds me of Bowling For Soup  in its construction and then comes 'Adjust', a brilliant piece of pop punk with start stop intro before the bassist Naoto Hori gets to show off and then the guitars kick things into high gear, very Therapy like with a soupcon of the Sex Pistols thrown in for good measure. Guillotine on the other hand reminds me of The Jam for some reason and is , arguably, the track that works least well of all those on the album. Luckily this is followed by 'Null And Void' yet another cracking track, all angry vocals and chugging guitars. 

'Queenie'  is by far the heaviest track on show by far and could certainly  attract attention from fans into the more metallic end of the spectrum and I would recommend that a video be made as it could do Brigade a world of good with the right airplay on satellite TV. 'The Hit’s The Scrapes' rounds the album off in almost Depeche Mode style and, followingon from the heaviest song,  is the most mellow track on the album. 

Brigade have produce a really good debut album that takes influences from all over the rock spectrum and the last 20 years or so and wraps them up into their  own style. The band are referred to it seems as post hardcore, whatever that means, though I would describe their music as pop/punk with hard rock overtones. Writers always seem to love pigeon holing bands into one genre or another though ulimatle all that matters is the fact the Brigade have produced a great album that will appeal to many fans and in my house certainly has both myself, the aging rocker, my young son and my wife, the grunge fan, all in agreement for once.

Dougie