In 2014 I caught a review of Leave With Us, that said, ‘Leave with Us could do for Barnsley what Nevermind did for Seattle. Impressive.’ On the tail of that, I located the band on social media, bought their album and waited to see them live… I am still waiting… and waiting. Suffice to say Leave With Us was a remarkable debut.
It’s been two years and Barnsley’s very own, Servers are back with Everything Is OK, out 19th August via Undergroove Records. In those two years they’ve been honing their live skills, playing festivals and ing the legendary Tairrie B fronted metal band, My Ruin on their UK tour (apart from London).
Incidentally their name, Servers, isn’t associated with telecommunications, but comes from the reference to the subordinate nature that cults work under and the people that follow them.
Now, time to hear the album.
Opener “Spells” is six minutes long and the sound is darker than any track from Everything‘s predecessor. The album is a glider, it’s over before you realise. The next thing to do is listen to it again. Tracks such as “Friends are Enemies” with its chanting chorus and a ferocity that brings memories back of Maynard Keenan’s Tool. “Hell With you!” has a Christopher Hitchens speech which adds the melancholic broody nature of the album: “in a cruel experiment we are created sick and commanded to be well…”. Powerful stuff, as is drumming of Ant Nettleship, its evocative of how Fear Factory would explode in their tracks, back in the day.
Throughout, Lee Wilde makes his bass sing like a Barry White style bird. In “Our Lady of Bad Counsel” shows their frustration of the world, a frustration of Rage Against the Machine proportions, but a swagger that would make Josh Homme write a song about them.
If Adam Ant appeared on this album, it would be on “Recklessly Extravagant” pronouncing those words “Recklessly ExtRAVAgent”. A great 80’s touch. “Into the Grave” has the deep grunge slew of L7’s “Let’s Pretend”.
This is my album of 2016. I implore you all to follow the trio of Lee Storrar, Lee Wilde and Ant Nettleship. On August 19th go to their Everything is OK launch party at Barnsley’s Rock and Blues bar with from another highly rated band from Barnsley, Hands off Gretel.
Servers can do wonders in this world of music. It has feeling and Servers make it an emotion.
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