Archive for February 10, 2010

IRISH NOISE! – Lluther: In the Dollhouse / King of Nothing (Single Reviews)

Posted in IRISH NOISE!, Music, Single Review with tags , , , , , , , on February 10, 2010 by Tickets There


Three years since the release of their debut album, Lluther are back! After a long quiet period, the band are ready to reemerge with a hard hittin’, heavy rock second album, Rise of the Reptile King. Today the band release the second single from the album, King of Nothing. Their first single, In The Dollhouse came out last month and much to Tickets There’s dismay We only heard about it today from our old rivals (who we’re beating in the hits war by the way. Push it guys – Ed) Hotpress. After fierce negotiations, some sackings and knee delivered apologies, Tickets There has decided to review both songs and save face,

In The Dollhouse is a terrific, building piece of rock music. Imagine Monster Magnet, Marilyn Manson and Scott Weiland writing a song and you’ll get close. There are so many different styles as the song moves from sustained melodies and echoing vocals to hard edged guitars and explosive changes. Each listen brings new love for the song and as first singles go, this is a pretty good sign of things to come.

King of Nothing is a totally different monster altogether. It’s like hard rock meets funk as synth/guitar riffs build the bridges while vocals intertwine throughout leaving the drums do their best to let you know what direction the foot stomping, C.A.F. (Catchy as F**k) chorus is going in. The guitars are nastier, the vocals are clearer, the production, playing, writing everything is just brilliant. While In The Dollhouse may take one or two listens to really warm up to, King of Nothing will drill straight into your playlist and stay there until you nuke the damn thing out.

Although there’s only a sample of the next two singles, Rise of the Reptile King and Femme Fatale up, they both sound like they’d rock the bollocks of a mammoth so expect a follow up review as soon as we have the album and/or when the songs come out.

Jez, after the amazing stuff we heard from Million$Reload, Tickets There didn’t think anyone else could come close but by God there’s some savage stuff going on in the  Lluther camp. This will be an album well worth picking up and loving.

Catch them when they play Dublin’s, The Button Factory on March 27th

Check out these songs and more at the bands MySpace by Clicking Here.

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MySpace Review – Million Dollar Reload

Posted in IRISH NOISE!, Music, MySpace Review with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 10, 2010 by Tickets There


Finally, Tickets There has found the band we’ve been looking for. After 76 MySpace Reviews, multiply that by 10 for the number of bands we’ve actually checked out as review candidates and the countless others we’ve come across in our seven or eight years as fans of Irish music. Million$Reload, in our opinion, are possibly the best Irish hard rock band that’s emerged from the emerald isle since Thin Lizzy. That might be actually be pushing it but right now, Tickets There is hard pushed to think of any other band that comes this close to perfecting one of the most exciting, hard edged sounds in modern music.

Hailing from Co. Tyrone, Million Dollar Reload formed in 2005 and released their debut album, Anthems of a Degeneration in 2007. The record seems to have received massive amounts of praise from major music publishers and critics from all across the U.K. and Ireland. They’ve toured with the likes of Alice Cooper and Gilby Clarke and some of the members were apparently involved with legendary Guns N Roses tribute band, Gunz N Rozes. This may help explain the bands incredible talent at writing four (and hopefully alot more) of the best hard rock anthems we’ve heard in many a year. Even Scottish hard rock act Wired Desire would have trouble competing with the sher perfection displayed by M$D.

Kicking things off is Livin’ In The City. What can you say? Blistering, assaulting, catchy, savage, cutting, riffage fueled monster? All the terms we’ve used before fail in the task of describing how kick ass this song is. It swaggers like Stephen Tyler in the seventies and hits harder than Lemmy would in a brawl. The song is just so full on and full of guitars and gritty street rock vocals. All this considered, it’s possibly the weakest song on the playlist. It begins!

Goodnight NewYork is everything Livin’ In The City was and more. The guitars are like something handpicked from an AC/DC anthem. The riffs are unrelenting in their power and the changes, hooks, choruses, bridges everything are just fantastic. The vocals on the chorus just pull the song up so many notches you’d swear you were in the Himalayas…the Himalayas of rock! (Jesus, seriously TT? ‘The Himalayas of rock’! Pity your writing doesn’t match the bands – Ed)

When we first ran through the tracks, third song – The Last Icon sounded a little dodgy. There’s always some element of reeking cheese with bands that try to write this sort of a song, but fear not as the band pull it off with exceptional style. The Last icon is a tribute to fallen rock legends such as Bon Scott (AC/DC), Elvis Presley (The King – Bitches!) and John Lennon (Hippie).  The intro is compiled from recordings of news reports from the days of Presley and Lennon’s deaths and the song starts off far more melodic and stripped back than the previous numbers. Before you think ‘here comes another Nickelback’, the band spice things up and some added riffage and attitude turn the song from Swiss Approved Product to thoroughly enjoyable, respectable slice of hard rock balladry.

Last but certainly not least, is the hard stomping, heart beating, fist belting anthem, show closer, curtain stopped, encore bound Fire Your Guns. Gritty, dirty, nasty vocals delivered with incredible force. Singer Phil possibly has the best hard rock voice of any band Ireland’s ever produced but the talent doesn’t stop there. Bam and Andy’s guitars give the song that razor slicing edge all good hard rock bands need. Their solo’s, riffs, melodies agh, everything is just amazing. The drums are just constantly smashing the hell out of everything and a pumped up bass completes Tickets There’s current favorite Irish hard rock group’s lineup. Fire Your Guns is just so incredibly full on and as catchy as Hell’s express train. Highway to hell? More like Armageddon marching hordes on the Autobahn to hell’s centre.  

Final opinion? Well, they’re alright. I mean, if you want to hear some of the best hard rock songs that have ever come out of Ireland, possibility the world, then I guess you could check them out. Every second their album isn’t in our hands we become more and more depressed. The more we realize we haven’t seen this band in their five years together we become depressed. This is a band worth checking out, loving, praising, financing, following and hyping up. Hell, these guys are so good they’re worth you heading out and building your own venue just so you can see book them.

Go check them out right now and don’t let them slip by your life for another second. CLICK HERE FOR PARADISE CITY!

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