Sucioperro - Fused Review

Ayrshire's Sucioperro may seem composed of familiar DNA – a Scottish burr, riffs, arena-sized anthems – but their fourth album is heavier, breaking from the skewed guitar pop of their local peers or previous records.

It's a good thing, too. Fused pulls away with a filthy roar of waxy guitar on A River of Blood, a grimy and lyrically profane opener. Any intricacy is kept to the undulating riff upon a time signature you can march to. To Nothing shows off a fine set of descending distorted chords, and a bungee jump leap of a choral build up. Sucioperro then continue to slap similar slabs together in Jenga towers glued with machismo. They rarely go less than full tilt, so the album flies past in enjoyable bluster.

The highlight is the title track, with its set of warm arpeggios and soaring vocals. It's also hard not to embrace the sludge sledgehammers of Discipline Office's verses or the glorious, adrenaline-rich freefall of To Nothing. However, Sucioperro don't always play to their strengths. Rabbits in Boxes is a pretty but uninteresting song that lurches into a 50-second caustic fuzz-burst. There's also the ludicrous Where at Dat Wild At, which nods to Marmaduke Duke, the playful side project of vocalist JP Reid and Biffy Clyro's Simon Neil....full text Back with a new album and their own label, Sucioperro continue to build on their position of a criminally-underrated band with 12 songs of varying style and consistent quality. Fused is their fourth full-length (the first on their own label, Medals For Everyone) and features some kick-to-the-teeth rockers alongside brilliant, hook-laden tracks that are equally deserving of the same recognition given to their Ayrshire mates, Biffy Clyro. Even Biffy had difficulty getting a foot onto the rungs of widespread success until their own fourth album, Puzzle, but with such emotive chorus’ made for festival sing-alongs, it’s surely only a matter of time before these dirty dogs reach similar dizzying heights.

Succinct as it is (the album runs its ragged course in just under half an hour), there’s a remarkable selection of styles in Fused. Opener A River Of Blood is pulsating and dark, with JP Reid’s vocals accentuating the punchy drop-B riffs, while the eerie synths and infectious beat of Where At Dat Wild At are jaunty by comparison. The chorus to Rabbits In Boxes is a stunner, made all the more beautiful with the line “I will come, turn the light from you / love you for who you are”, before returning to the distortion-soaked guitars that are perhaps more reflective of the subject’s torment.

It’s that succinctness, however, that leaves the nagging sense that something is missing. The title-track is a case in point – it trickles to a stop in that way that bands halt at shows when the timing’s off, an instrument knackers out or when their frontman is Axl Rose. It might be being greedy, but sometimes there’s a definite need for a banquet rather than a bap....full text Occasionally it takes a band like Sucioperro to make you realise just how homogenized a lot of modern rock music has become. The Scottish trio have just reached a decade together but are showing no signs of toeing the line or compromising their sound, with supercharged new album Fused sounding as vital, essential and individual as ever.

Fans of British rock in the vein of Biffy Clyro, Turbowolf and Reuben will fall instantly for the dark stomp and anthemic breakdown of ‘To Nothing’ and the crashing alt-disco riffs of ‘Wolves’ provide an accessible crossover for UK indie obsessives. Most importantly this record sounds organic as hell; there’s a crunch and a subtly beautiful swagger driving mellower offering ‘Rabbits In Boxes’ that the current crop of new pretenders could learn valuable lessons from. Sometimes the best new music comes from old hands, and Fused is no exception – get educated....full text