UK Foo Fighters
In Mills we see an emergence of an exciting new rock act from the UK, the four piece have a certain amount of rock heritage which is enough to, not get completely excited like the formation of Them Crooked Vultures but enough to make you raise your eyebrows, prick your ears and think maybe this could be special.
Former Imogen Heap drummer, Richie Mills, is, as his surname suggest, is the main driving force on this new group, swapping his drum sticks for the guitar and lead vocals. The transition seems to have worked too for Richie plays and sings like he has been doing it for years. He is joined by former Hundred Reasons guitarist Ben Doyle, Alex Hill on Bass and former Brigade drummer, Nat Finbow.
The 11 track album kicks off in fine thumping style with previously released single, ‘Exhaust’. From the start Richie Mills vocals combine the growls with harmonic. It moves seamlessly into ‘Hello mellow’, which as you can imagine is a bit more on the softer side, extremely similar to another band formed with a previous drummer becoming the front man, Foo Fighters.
‘Decader’ is jam packed with rocking tunes, other than the opener, ‘Hell and Back’ and ‘The Smell Of Guilt’ show their edgier side and variation too, especially on ‘Night / Nite’, which surprisingly goes all electro on us just after half way.
Mills seem to be able to create the power ballad sound just as well too with the likes of ‘Who’s Your Friend’ with its slow starting and powerful finish, ‘Platonic Lovers’ and ‘Everywhere and Right Next To You’ with the latter being a full on ballad complete with a strings section.
It is good to hear a UK band produce a polished album of this level. Sadly it does just smell a bit too much of a Foo Fighters tribute band. Hopefully the future will see Mills find a bit more of their own sound as the talent is clearly there for all to see.