Breed 77 - 'Breed 77' (Albert Productions) Released 04/04/05

This self-titled debut album from Breed 77 first saw the light of day in 2001, but was only available in limited numbers, so is now being re-released to meet demand... 

If you’ve sensitive hearing, this is not an album for you.  All amps are turned up to max, and Paul Isola isn’t afraid to use a demonic screech, which is actually a shame because his vocals are actually pretty good when he decides to sing – the regular execution of both within the same song means you could be forgiven for thinking you’re listening to a duet, particularly on ‘Switch’.  On ‘Breaking The Silence’, which shows restraint until the chorus kicks in, Isola is actually convincing as a man expressing pain.  Unfortunately, many of the other tracks blend into one another.

‘Final Prayer’, ‘A Safe Place’ and many others follow the simple formula of crunching guitars leading up to a big chorus – it soon gets tiresome and seems uninspired.  ‘Shadows’ does have a decent melody and ‘Karma’ is potentially a big anthem, but all too often it descends into noise.  As a result of this the vocals are drowned out, when it might be more beneficial to actually hear what the song is about.  If you can get through this, there is reward in the final track ‘The Hole’ – beginning almost as a ballad, it becomes an epic hypnotic beast.  However, it just acts to further emphasise the mess that the rest of the album is.