Album review: MICHAEL GRANT & THE ASSASSINS – Always The Villain

Frontiers Records [Release date 10.07.20]

Few bands or artists appear from nowhere. And sure enough, Michael Grant has a history, one that goes beyond his recent stint with the LA Guns.

Wiki will reveal all so no point in going into it here.

Suffice to say a couple of songs from his past have followed him on to “Always The Villain”. The first of those, the high velocity ‘Barrel Of A Gun’, opens the album with Uzi like bursts of tightly packed riffs, preparing the ground for the seriously sinuous melodies of Grant’s street hardened rock’n'roll. At times, arguably, it’s hard rock with hip hop cadences. Music for today. And perhaps tomorrow too.

The other one of the pair is the cold, pounding, ‘Break Me With U’, a sinister mix of electronica and shadowy sensuality, with a brooding, Goth rock spirituality.

You can see why Grant has carried the songs in his backpack down the years.

The new stuff : He catches a groove with ‘Killing Me Slowly’, arguably the album’s magnum opus, a slinky, sub funk rock song, pushed along by a backdrop of rushing guitars and a razoring, heavily melodic axe solo.

‘Nightmare’, a distillation of chart aimed, alt rock melancholy is pretty good too, showing off Grant’s edgy baritone and his high calibre songwriting to best effect.

All that said, you could argue the album pivots around two equally interesting tracks. The album’s first single, ‘Red Light Run’ is a peach. A broken down, then reassembled and buffed up melodic rock song for today’s AOR audiences. The other, ‘Anthem Of Us’, is a lot like the work of Alt rock giants, Our Lady Peace, allowing a luminous melody to glide through a wall of noise unscathed. Nothing is done for show and everything is done for effect. Genius.

Grant’s problem (and by definition, Frontiers too) is the fact his music cannot be pinned down. It’s impossible to pigeonhole. We should be thankful for that. But history tells us that just makes an artist’s breakthrough all the harder. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 November 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)