Chain reaction
This is cracking Brit-rock stuff that doffs its cap to Motorhead while rifling through the best moments of Nirvana's "Bleach". Crucially though, Zico Chain remember to match power and heavy riffing with great melodic tunes.
Opener "Rohypnol" sets out the bands stall early on, over crunching guitars frontman Chris Glitheroe gruffly but forcefully yells "I want to get some, I gotta get some (rohypnol)" quite why he's so insistent on this point is a little unclear, there's certainly nothing sedate about this mini album which barely pauses for breath, flying through its six tracks in barely twenty minutes. "This Thing" recalls an irked Therapy? Or a vicious Queens Of The Stone Age and even better is the zippy "Roll Over" a basic four to the floor rocker whose buzz-saw guitars don't wear out their welcome across a breathless two minutes and twenty seconds. The brooding "Social Suicide" cranks things up even further before slamming straight into the desperate Nirvana-isms of "Brain".
Room Thirteen can only lay back and marvel at a band with the balls to release something so deliciously out of step with prevailing rock trends. Then like a tenacious midfield dynamo The Zico Chain end proceedings by kicking all those whiny emo bands around the park before scoring a last minute winner with the sledgehammer riffage on closer "The Lonely Ones". If only all British rock music was this good right now. The UK and the world in general need more rock bands of a similar ilk right now.