More Interviews...
Features...
Reviews...

From the first minute, The Blackout’s new album ‘The Best In Town’ oozes attitude and packs a good punch in your gut. The opening track, ‘STFUpperCut’ is totally cocksure as it screams, ‘You can’t bring us down, we’re the best in town.’ This first track seems to be a very blatant finger to the haters and those people who never thought they’d make it this far. Well, they have, but it took some getting there.

2008 was like a shiny penny for the Welshmen. Following the success of their full-length debut album, The Blackout played Give It A Name and Slam Dunk festival, crossed the pond to play Bamboozle in New Jersey, and paid Japan a 4 day visit playing with Alesana, a six piece post-hardcore group. On their return, they branched out on another UK tour supported by The Medic Droid, We Are The Ocean and From First To Last. And then, the band rang in 2009 with a good year’s work under their belts … but it wasn’t going to be as smooth this time around.

Despite the fantastic reception of 2007’s ‘We Are The Dynamite’ The Blackout parted ways with their record label Fierce Panda in 2008 before beginning work on ‘The Best In Town’; completing it by early January 2009. April 2009 saw the launch of first single ‘Children Of The Night’ with the haunting vocals of Gavin Butler and Sean Smith, the attack of the guitars, and the punctuating rhythm that The Blackout are renowned for. As far as the fans were concerned, May 25th couldn’t come fast enough.

But soon, the wait was over. Those who were expecting a mere copy of ‘We Are The Dynamite’ will be sorely disappointed. This album has all of that, but so much more to offer. ‘Top Of The World’ is this albums answer to ‘It’s High Tide Baby!’ - a song which shows that this six piece are not about attitude and balls. This song is a one with real power, and it still makes those fangirls fall for vocalist Sean Smith just that little bit more … ‘You said, you said that you’d be the girl, to stop me, stop me fooling around, I said you’d keep my feet on the ground.’

Highlights of the album include the storming track, ‘The Fire’, ‘Said And Done’, comparable to old classic ‘I Know You Are, But What Am I?’ and ‘This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’ which sees a cameo appearance from Josh Franceschi and the boys from You Me At Six. In short, the album is a dirty, attitude-ridden, 10 track romp, full of hip-shaking beats, shivering riffs and hair-raising vocals; another fabulous contribution to the world of post-hardcore from The Blackout.