Down I Go – Tyrant

I’m seriously lacking in heavy music at the moment so I have been looking for some good stuff recently. Down I Go has come to the top of the pile along with Torche and to a lesser extent Johnny Truant. Down I Go have made a hardcore punk rock metal concept album about tyrannical leaders of past and present and it fucking shreds.

They jump from full on metal riffs to more maths based odd rhythms and deranged instrumentals. We get screams and singing I’m not to keen on his Londoner style accent when he sings normally but his snarl and growl are awesome. Its more inventive than a lot f0o heavy stuff I have heard recently and that draws me in for sure. Just like Rolo Tomassi change direction at break kneck speeds and dip their toes into so many genres while still keeping it heavy and interesting. Down I Go keep it a lot more traditional than Rolo Tomassi but they still have an experimental spirit to it that I enjoy, the track Idi Amin has a nice bit of jazzy influenced playing at the end that echoes that of Rolo’s.. As does the digital splatters of opener Tomas de Torquemada, the violin strings on this are sweet as hell too they add a cool punch to the track. The horn section in King Henry VIII is just brilliant and brings an epic edge to the track. Every track has something to offer really.

Down I Go will get the moshers in a frenzy, they shred hard on this album, I have no idea about anything else they have done or what others think of them but hell I think its wicked. They manage to be hardcore and metal but without the horrible cheese so many heavy bands fall into Down I Go rock hard and are educational with their stories of tyrannical leaders.

Stand out tracks: Tomas de Torquemada, Joseph Starlin, Nicholae Ceaucescu, King Leopold II, King Henry VIII, Augusto Pinochet, Ivan The Terrible.

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