Duri
Remember Rock? LP
Portsmouth rockers, Duri, list influences such as Linkin Park, Nirvana, Skunk Anansie, and Iron Maiden amongst others and there is plenty of evidence to support this in their debut album, ‘Remember Rock’.
Initial impressions from first track, ‘Infallible’, are of Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’ with a simple guitar based rock sound and angsty female vocal, which in the case of Duri, comes courtesy of Jaye Jenkins.
Hints of the Linkin Park influence are evident in the intro to ‘So Much More’ and the vocals take on a distinctly Skunk Anansie flavour with high melodies and caustic spoken lyrics.
Other notable tracks include ‘Stand Down’ and ‘I Wish I stayed at Home’, for the right reasons and ‘Don’t Feel 2 Blue’ for all the wrong ones. I’m not sure why Duri felt the urge to add a blues-rock song to the record but, even if they believed it was the right thing to do, they could at least have put their own stamp on it. However, ‘Stand Down’ is one of the better songs on the album with gritty riffs, angry vocals and a dirty rock sound that continues into ‘I Wish I Stayed at Home’.
The end of the album offers the best of the bunch with the emotional melody of ‘If I’. The backing vocals and guitar sounds in this song bring to mind Evanesence as well as the slower numbers from Feline’s ‘Save Your Face’.
Overall, some of the songs are a bit lost and this is mainly due to the lack of hooks musically. For example, ‘Feigned’ is a great showcase for the vocal, but it doesn’t have any other focus. The potential cure for this ill would be some more innovations in both the guitar and bass departments. After all, Skunk Anansie had a fantastic singer too but you could name the artist and title (and date of release if you were a bit nerdy) before Skin had even uttered her first word.
In saying the above though, this isn’t a bad debut and certainly states Duri’s intention to rock. They clearly have the songwriting ability to craft some decent material but need to build on their strengths rather than rely solely on them.
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Written by Fenton on
