Fuck Your Scenes Review: Last Hour Battle

Genre: Alternative-rock, Post-grunge

I received an email not too long ago from a man named Nick McGowan, asking me to review some new music from his band Last Hour Battle. I’m always looking for new music and after listening to the songs, I decided that this was something I could easily get into and write a review for.

There were three songs: “No Surrender,” “All the World,” and “White Bear.” All three songs are available on their Facebook page, so if you’re curious yourself to see what I’m about to talk about in this review, then click this link and enjoy for yourself!

Guitars bring in the first track “No Surrender” in a way that reminisce of an early-Thrice album; particularly The Artist in the Ambulance. The verses, however, don’t follow that set notion. Instead, they sound more like Incubus, mainly due to the vocals of McGowan himself, with the bass-line in the second verse driving that part of the song and rightfully so. The chorus changes the sound once again, crawling closer to a Pearl Jam-esque sound, once again; mainly due to the vocals. Faint background screams are also present in the chorus as they scream out “We’re not giving up.”

“All the World” is a more straight-forward rock song, as it never quite slows down after the chorus hits the first time. Bass-lines once again dominate the first line until everything hits and it becomes a loud and hard-hitting rock song. I’m not sure why, but the line “They say we should forgive and forget//but they don’t live to regret like us” stands out to me. I’d even say it’s my favorite lyric in these collection of songs. “White Bear” is the final of three songs and brings back the alternative/Incubus feel to the band, with the instrumentals even sounding like the Red Hot Chili Peppers at times. The chorus is melodically done, with guitars being the main part. Vocals once again recount Edde Vedder and Chris Cornell.

Last Hour Battle aren’t just another “rock” band, despite how it may seem at first. If you then take in the songs after a couple of listens, you’ll see the comparisons to Cornell, Vedder and other acts mentioned so far. It’s progressive, it’s alternative, it’s grunge; it’s just overall good. There are times where you can simply hear the elements ooze out of their songs, and that’s incredible.

****/*****