Spiders From Saigon are a studio based hard rock band based in the North East of England. Made of 3 core members: David, Luke and Matt the album features various guest solos and performances by other north east musicians – notably Kev Smith (Lords of Ruin) who provides blazing guitar solos on several tracks.
Completely independent, the band write, record, produce and release everything themselves and plan on releasing a new single every month (until Covid put this plan on hold).
A burst of guitar announces the Spiders From Saigon and their first track ‘Voyage To Decay’. The riff goes all spacey and we are introduced to the bellow of Matt Adamson. From out of nowhere one hell of a tasty solo appears that is dripping with all the tricks of a great hard rock solo.
Single ‘Holy Temptress’ is a huge arena sized track with Adamson belting out the lyrics again. The guitars outshine everything on this track though. Thrashing out a solo thats a song within a song and driving the song into a whirlwind of distorted riffing.
This album has a good breadth of styles. After the full on rock tracks the band slot in ‘Beyond Lock & Key’ with a more slowed down groove feel to it. The bass driven riff is briefly interrupted as the lead guitar lets rip but we settle down to a verse that grinds along until the track takes a breath of air before a nu-metal sounding chorus punches through. Speaking of one hell of a huge chorus. Next track ‘Centrifuge’ has a tinge of American hard rock about it with huge pounding drums under the clean picked guitar.
Massive riffs are what the band are about and they don’t get much bigger than the riff for ‘Triptych’. Rapid fire vocals only increases the tempo of the track that flies out of the speakers like a freight train. The band sound so alive on the interludes here as they really get into the groove and sound confident.
The album so far hasn’t strayed too far away from the metal/rock edge, yet each song has its own identity. Theres no repeat or filler and with tracks like ‘Shattered Hearts’, the band welcomes strings to go along side the heavy guitar and rattling drums. The verses take on a symphonic metal however the guitar drops in some hard rock lead lines as the track enters power metal with female vocals and a head banging riff.
‘Static Colour’ bluesy seventies feel with the cry baby used to full effect ripping up the intro before the swagger is brought on the verses and a joyful chorus the guitar work is off the hook on this track. The guitar wizardry carries on with the Thin Lizzy guitar harmonies opening track ‘Roadkill Memoirs’. It soon gets down and dirty with a bass heavy riff and talk box effect, as once again Adamson sounds like all the Rock Gods rolled into one, as he belts this track out.
Leading you in to a false sense of stoner rock ‘Dopers Odyssey’ the staccato burst of guitar gives you a slap as the groove takes over. The breakneck speed of the music takes a notch up for the chorus. As is becoming the norm for this band the guitars are just on the right side of showy but full of melodic presence.
Foot to the floor rock is what these guys do well and ‘Right Side Of The Dirt’ is just that. Another arena sized track with a banging riff and Adamson performing out of skin once again. Musical talent is something this album isn’t short of.
‘Filth (In The Same Degree)’ Is a cool bluesy number that will make any barroom jumping. The guys have always flirted with a slight American sound throughout this album and this hard rocker carries on just that with its main riff. The guitar solo on this track just goes off on its own and lifts the song to even higher heights. A swaggering track to end the album on.
The guys only had one goal, and that was to bring back huge riff rock that they love. With this album they have brought back the love of the guitar solo and pure down and dirty rock n roll. With some cracking performances all round the whole album is an infectious headbanger from start to finish.
This band deserve an arena with thousands of adoring fans. Anything less is a crime.
Check out the track Holy Temptress, below
Find out more about the band via their Facebook
