Scorpion Child is playing Tut’s tonight as park of Metal Hammer’s ‘Lord of Riff’ tour.
Of the many influential bands borne out of Scotland, one of names that constantly appears in myriad Scorpion Child press releases, record reviews and live reviews, is the legendary Uriah Heap –almost as a contractual requisite.
However, this is not by any means used in a derogatory manner or to suggest lack of originality; or indicative of a lost entity looking for an identity or raison d’être.
One of the truly great idiosyncrasies of Scorpion Child is their ability to infuse a modicum of influences and create an album that is so focused in its central drive; an album that covers a wide spectrum of influential traits, yet still retains its own sound.
What the band have essentially created, is a conglomeration of written songs, and delivered a debut album that sounds like it was produced from a group of musicians many years their senior.
It’s a full house tonight and the crowd are a heterogeneous mix of young and old, which is pretty apt considering the music could ultimately be described as “dad-rock”, …but cool “dad-rock” (…and yes, that might sound a tad oxymoronic, but it ‘can’, and ‘does’ exist).
They cover a spectrum that ventures to the dark riffage of Black Sabbath, all the way to the other side of the balladry of White Snake and Rainbow.
Highlights from their debut album include ‘Kings Highway’, single ‘Polygon Of Eyes’ (arguably the best track on the album), ‘In The Arms of Ecstasy’ and ‘Paradigm’.
There is a hint of déjà vu in the sounds emanating from the stage, but not once do these sounds lead to an anachronistic displacement in time.
Music with heart and soul, it’s top-notch material, and far more intense seeing Scorpion Child perform their material live.
A band called Monster Truck playing a gig titled ‘Lord of Riff’ provides all the ingredients that are indicative of five old bikers trying to find vestigial traces of any youth they once had; this could not be further from the truth.
The band are out to have fun and play loud rock ’n’ roll songs with the singer Jon Havey having already stated in an interview that they’re not trying to rewrite the rules of the ‘classic-rock-sound’.
The songs are anthemic in nature, and this is clearly expressed by the crowd’s familiarity with the material from their feature length album Furiosity.
‘Righteous Smoke’ has the whole crowd joining in with the choral chants; and it’s pretty darn impressive.
‘Old Train’ provides more epically infectious chants that make for another reciprocal and almost obligatory ‘question/answer’ connection between the band and the crowd.
Single ‘Sweat Mountain River’, ‘Seven Seas Blues’ and ‘The Lion’ all go down a treat with the crowd tonight and it’s pretty safe to say that these guys are definitely lords at churning out the meaty-abattoir-stun-gunning riffage tonight, as the bludgeoning blues-esque riffs cut through the dense air of packed bodies; guitarist Jeremy Wilderman certainly does grind that axe (in a PG-13 manner of course…).
Top gig; great music, and epic riffs. What more could one ask for?
Words: Derek Robertson
Photos: Jayjay Robertson
