Yak - Alas Salvation

Rating:

With their debut album, Yak mean business.

'Album' of 'the Week'

Be a great live band, and you put a target on your back. Think of it. You can send a packed room of beer soaked revellers off the edge at will. They go home raving about their best night ever. And then you have to recreate it on record.

It’s where so many fall down - unable to bring the mayhem of the basement into the relatively sensible world of the recording studio. If you trash your producer’s gear, he’s gonna get pissed. What seems exciting in the moment can end up empty and flat.

It’s something that should be a problem for Yak. Live, they’re a force of nature, always hanging on the edge of the drop, daring their own momentum to send them flying into oblivion. Note the should, though. With ‘Alas Salvation’ they prove definitively, it really, really isn’t. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

From the opening roll of ‘Victorious (National Anthem)’, they’re a band on the run. Full pelt. Into a wall. And then through the other side. ‘Hungry Heart’ rolls like a truck with no breaks down an especially steep hill, while ‘Use Somebody’ throws the odd lick into its 100mph assault. Yak mean business.

When the pace is slowed for ‘Roll Another’, there’s enough charm to carry through. When they bring it all together for ‘Harbour The Feeling’, it’s nothing short of triumphant. If it really is better to burn bright than fade away, Yak are the only firework display in town.[sc name="stopper" ]