Hello everyone, welcome to a new year, a new year of music, shows and discovery. For the first taste of an incredible 2023, we have Anchor Lane’s latest effort, ‘Call This A Reality’.
Anchor Lane have built a reputation as a thrilling dynamic live act through appearances at prominent music festivals such as Download, Isle of Wight and Belladrum etc. – along with notable guest spots with acts like Eagles of Death Metal, Tremonti and Skindred. They were denied the opportunity to tour due to the global pandemic which the band turned into a positive when, amongst several live streams for their fans, they used the time to dig deeper into the song writing process for the new album ‘Call This A Reality?’.
The record itself is perfect for fans of Royal Blood and Nothing But Thieves, there’s certain themes connecting the drums and guitar breakdowns which are reminiscent but in turn take it a step further than some tracks of theirs. One might think that at a first glance, Anchor Lane’s quite reserved youthful nature might hinder them for the subject matter explored on the record but this only helps elevate them and push them to the new extremes they’ve set themselves with this release.
Starting strong at the top of the release, the anthem nature of ‘Stutter’ just adds to the growing excellence of the bands songwriting which makes it an ear worm waiting to be unlocked. This feeds well into the latter of the record, ‘Ministry’ and ‘Nitroglycerin’ are a couple of the more techno and dream rock inspired tracks which just enlarges things for an audience where you hear such huge riffs which make them one day destined for much larger venues and the goals the band as a whole strive toward.
Adding to the soundscape of the new record, the vocal performance argue a new challenge for these tracks, where the title track of ‘Call This A Reality’ certainly delivers on the challenge the record poses in the material for the concept of the record as a whole. You can really hear the themes and such play out more to stagger into the emotional gut punch which you need right now.
Moving further down the record, ‘The Mischievous Song’ does exactly what it says on the tin where the breakdown just comes right out of nowhere to provide a taste of pure chaos the band encapsulate to bring about the glorious filthy variety we gain from the track. ‘Choke’ for me is just the highlight of the entire record, it’s got a much more heavy aspect to the entire record and it sounds as if it was made for the madness of a mosh pit fuelled slice of heaven. This then bounces back straight into ‘Bitter’, a more mellow track and tonally different to most of this selection of tracks but a more gut wrenching and emotional taste of what the band has on offer.
There’s some great material written for the record but sometimes it’s all about the placement and that flow of energy which falls onto ‘I Don’t Have Another Soul To Pour’ to bring it to a close.
Despite some rise and fall progressions on the release, there’s a certain generalness to the record. While there’s no poor tracks, there’s the rare feat you just need to have to make it something more. While it’s looking like this effort could be a benchmark for Anchor Lane, the maturity from their songwriting remains as important to them than anything in the production and preparedness for how they approach anything moving forward.
Rating:3/5.
Check out the record, ‘Call This A Reality’ below.
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