We featured Tremendous as Band of the Day a little over a year ago, and a few weeks back they released Relentless, their debut album. So are they Tremendous? Is it truly relentless?
Tremendous model themselve on the late 60s and early 70s of poppy rock, and on the strength of Relentless they do it well. Harking back to the classic acts without ripping any of them off, even the vocals have that hint of an obvious British twang that helped sell the likes of The Beatles and The Stones to the US. The opening song, “Don’t Leave Our Love (Open For Closing)” has been around for a while, being the featured video on the previously mentioned BOtD article. It’s fairly upbeat, but has that pre-emo angst-y feel that fills a lot of classic rock and roll.
“Like Dreamers Do” (also a track the band wrote a couple of years ago) is a slower number, more thoughtful, and “Bag of Nails” really has a Beatles vibe but with an added bit of noise. It’s an unusual combination as you’re almost bouncing between the older material and a louder, more raucous modern sound.
There are some real pearls on Relentless. I do like that opening number, “Daniela”‘s punky tones are headbanging material and “Heart Sinker” similarly rocks. There’s a definite lo-fi / garage vibe to the production which is most obviously felt in the later songs such as “Fightin’ to Lose” and “Copycat Killer”, the latter of which sounds like it could have been recorded live in one take (something The Beatles certainly weren’t masters of, going by liner notes that detail the multiple takes and editing they did in studio).
The majority of songs are around three minutes long with some being even shorter, again similar to that old style, so it’s not a long listen. But it’s a good one. Tremendous have an album to be proud of, and there aren’t too many bands filling the niche they populate. If you want to try a modern take on a classic rock n’ roll sound then this should be on your shortlist.
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