Reviews
Brigade - Made To Wreck
by Rich on 20051128
Brigade have been a band working hard on the underground for a while now. Things, to be honest, didn’t look too good for the band. Sure they had some nice songs under their belts but there wasn’t anything that really made stand out against the rest of the bands on the toilet circuit of the UK. Then a strange thing happened. Charlie from Busted made the band come to the forefront. As he left the pop band that made him famous and brought his serious project Fightstar to the mind of real rock bands he started to drag his brother’s band Brigade with him. As much as Brigade surely wont want to only be known because of the Fightstar connections it is a fact that it was part of what brought them to the big time. But that isn’t why they are going to stay there, that’s because of their debut EP, “Made To Wreck”, so I’ll try not to mention Charlie Simpson again. The band’s sound is made up big, melodic verses and absolutely mammoth choruses which is a pretty great start. But there is nothing particularly original about this but it’s the way that Brigade add vocals that sound a little bit like Placebo’s Brian Molko that make a very interesting sound that suddenly turn Brigade from run of the to stand out band but it does have a downside. Some how, although sounding very original doesn’t always sound right. Maybe that is a real tribute to the band that they have come up with something that is so new people aren’t used to. Or maybe it’s something that will let them down and stop them from taking the next step. At times, Brigade really take flight and come across as the possible answer to Placebo, “Meet Me At My Funeral” takes the best part of the 90’s indie rock band’s sound and brings it right up to date with a bigger sound and elements of post hardcore but moments like this aren’t as common as they should be. Maybe when the band puts a full length together it’ll take the good parts of “Made To Wreck” and mix them all together in way that seems more natural and comfortable to listen to.Rating out of five: 3