Album of the Week: Talons – Hollow Realm
So this is my last Album of the Week this year.
It’s been a hell of a year for music. It’s also been my first year of blogging and the exposure to tonnes of music I may not have otherwise have heard has been illuminating. So a big thanks to bands, artists, PR companies, labels and fellow bloggers who have gotten in touch and been hugely supportive, as well, of course to everyone who’s been reading.
I’ll be kicking off my semi-legendary Christmas Top 25 Albums list next week, but here’s one last album well worth highlighting.
Talons are a post rock/math rock six piece from Hereford (!?!) who have managed to bring something fresh to a genre that has clear sonic limitations.
The difference lies in the addition of twin violins. Not wholly unusual in post rock – Godspeed and Silver Mt Zion both use strings, both of those bands also go for slow, sweeping arrangements. Talons, however, like it fast and furious.
Citing Mastodon as an influence and also mentioning post-metallers Russian Circles as recommended listening gives a bit of a clue to their sound – riffs abound but so do some very intelligent arrangements.
Hollow Realm has been written as a complete piece, divided in to eight ‘songs’ of wildly varying lengths. To pick out a particular track or two may defeat the purpose but it’s fair to say that Impala manages to capture what this album is all about in a bite-sized portion.
You’ll be left dizzied by many movements of closer Hollow Depth which, by the end, feels like someone is just repeatedly smashing a violin off a bass drum and is therefore utterly brilliant.
If you like your rock heavy but clever then this is the album for you.
I spoke to bassist Chris Hicks about the band and their sound.
So who the hell are you?
I’m Chris and I play bass in Talons.
Please describe your sound in ten words or less.
Medieval progressive post hardcore with a touch of nu-metal.
Hereford then… seething cesspit of musical genius?
It seems an unlikely place, but there was actually a decent music scene going in Hereford a couple of years ago. There were a few promoters who put on some great bands, and a few acts from Hereford have done pretty well for themselves, like Apples and Bayonets. The formation of Talons came about from us knowing each other through our separate bands, filling in until the current line up became permanent.
I’d say what you play falls largely into the post rock genre but it’s still fairly individual sounding – are there any key influences on your sound?
None of us have the same music taste, we all listen to completely different stuff. Oli (Steels – guitar) probably listens to the most instrumental and post rock music out of us, but we’re all into it to some extent. I guess from the start we’ve been into bands like Russian Circles, Mastodon and Botch, but our music tastes change the whole time. Film scores and classical music are a big source of inspiration, particularly for the string sections. We’d love to write a soundtrack.
The use of violin adds a certain je ne sais quoi to instrumental rock music – was it a conscious decision to use the instrument? Or was it more about simply knowing a few violinists and roping in them in?
The original plan with Talons wasn’t to have a fixed line up, musicians would come in where it suits, and the line up would keep changing. Having two violin players can certainly seem a bit of a gimmick, but as we’ve developed our sound they’ve always been an integral part of the music. A lot of post rock and instrumental bands use string sections in their recordings, but when it comes to playing live they either sample those parts or leave them out altogether. Having a live string section adds a lot more to the experience of a live performance.
After plenty of singles, how does it feel to finally get an album out?
It’s awesome to finally have a ‘proper’ release that isn’t just a limited run. We’ve put a lot of time, money and effort into this, and it has definitely been worth it. The creation period has been really interesting as we’ve been writing and recording for a whole release as we’ve tried to write it as an album opposed to a collection of songs.
What’s Santa bringing you? And do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
I bought our van an iPod dock for Christmas. Last year Sam (Little – violin) got us each a personal dog ornament from one of the many charity shops in Hereford. New years resolutions? We’d like to tour in Europe at least one more time, record another release and keep gigging. Maybe we’ll have to lay off the impromptu Wetherspoons breakfasts when we’re on tour after Christmas.
You can have a listen to album track Peter Pan below and it’s available to download for free from the A Badge of Friendship Soundcloud page.
