Tarraska

Tarraska – Tarraska

Bournemouth four-piece rockers recently released their debut self-titled album and, by and large, it’s a solid body of work and showcases their song writing and musical talents very well. I do have a suggestion for the band moving forward but I’ll come to that later.

The album opens with the chunky riffage of Sins of the Other and it’s a strong start musically with some excellent lead guitar work. It’s a strong song to set the bar for the album. Renegade is next and while it’s a perfectly acceptable rock song, it doesn’t feel as strong as the first track. Again, this doesn’t mean it’s a bad song, far from it, but having set the bar so high, Renegade doesn’t quite, for me, match up to it.

The rest of the album shows a similar trend of fantastic songs and some songs that, for me, while good, don’t quite meet the level of other album tracks. It’s no coincidence that the songs I like best are the slower, more structured and textured songs like White Flower, Requiem, Prose and Chimera. All these songs showcase the musical abilities of the whole band and seem to be a better fit for singer/rhythm guitarist Jack Lande’s singing style and range.

The album, as a whole, is definitely a successful debut record and a worthwhile investment for any rock fan but, in my humble opinion, the band would be best served by focussing on the longer, slower and more structured songs in the future. Moving in a more prog rock/experimental direction would capitalise on the song writing and musical talents that are at their best in that type of song. I look forward to seeing this band live in the future and it’s the atmosphere of the slower songs I’m looking forward to most.