All Hail The Metal Flute
Midland four-piece rockers The James Warner Prophecies have a sound that mixes up the gritty force of Hard Rock, with a large thoughtful dollop of Emo, and a sneaky dash of Funk, whilst all the while you are taken down a musical journey that also adds Folk like a beautiful maiden to be held. This together gives us an unusual sound that intrigues even the easily bored, and whilst we only have four songs you can’t help wonder what the heck a whole album full of these gems might sound like…
The opening track is, ‘The One’ which is apt what with it being the first song and all. It starts off gently with melodic guitars and a keyboard laying a musical foundation in the background before the vocals kick in, giving us a mid-tempo Funk-fused Rock track. The first thing that you will notice is that musically the band are mature and the mix of guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and flute work really well. It’s mellow but strong all at once like some odd musical oxymoron. This then leads us to the hard rocking track of, ‘Braincell Piracy’ that has a fast paced Alt Rock feel like Zebrahead, but with a flute duelling with the big guitar riffs. It shouldn’t work, but blimey, it does! This does give it a more maritime feel like a band of scurvy pirate rockers at the climax of a night of rum and wenches.
Then just as you might be having a clue as to what genre this band might be, they jump into, ‘Fashionable Place Of Birth’, a song that has a go a narrow-minded people that care more about where you are from rather than what you can offer. “I’m a northerner!” proclaims singer and guitarist Joe Brown, before then singing, “I’m a Londoner!” with a sing-song chorus. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but clever and catchy at the same time whilst also giving a great dimension to the band.
Last song, ‘Judas Stone’ is a funky-stomp of a song that showcases Joe’s great vocal range that can sing with a funky-edge as well as gusty and whisky-soaked blues. This is a little like Frank Turner in it’s everyday-man-Folk, mixed with some great Hard-Rock sensibilities. Good stuff.
You will not have heard a band like The James Warner Prophecies before, this I am completely sure. It’s in the balance as to whether they will be a band that will gain any real success, but that doesn’t mean that they are not a great band. This EP shows that there is enough talent and originality for them to have a large fan base. I also like the fact that each band member looks like they’ve been plucked from another band of a different genre; musically they sound like this too and that is both refreshing and kick-ass at the same time. This is a great EP. Certainly a band to keep an eye out for in the future…