Thousand Island Records/Lockjaw Records – 12 February 2021
A little more rock, a lot more sound
The British band DRONES made a splash with their debut album Exiled in 2018: a great concept-album about the refugee crisis. They’re now back with the follow-up Our Hell Is Right Here, which they have been teasing us with four singles so far.
Let us get the bad news out of the way first: Our Hell Is Right Here is suffering from what I call “Modern Production Disease.” That means that the record is mastered really, really loud; the drum hits all sound the same, and higher frequencies are kind off fizzy. This doesn’t make this a bad sounding record, but WHEN EVERYTHING IS LOUD ALL THE TIME, I tend to turn to get bored and turn down the volume. With a more dynamic sounding record, I think they could have really knocked it out of the park.
That being said: Our Hell Is Right Here is still a good record. The band is self-described as a punk/rock band and that is rather fitting. Where Exiled was more on the punk side of the /, this time they put more emphasis on the rock part. This enables vocalist Lois McDougall to take the spotlight more and have a more vocal-centered record. McDougall has a great voice and it is nice to hear her to take it to the next level on this album. This might also have something to do with the subject matter. To quote the press release:
“Whilst writing this record, I went through a divorce, lost a family member and was battling with my own mental health. At the same time, it felt like the world was falling apart.
Hearing McDougal hauntingly repeating the phrase “No, I’m not alone” in my personal favourite “Learn” makes perfect sense when reading that statement. This song really jumped out when I first heard it and I circle back to this time every time I listen to the record. Title track Our Hell Is Right Here also deserves credit as one of the better songs on the record and the guest vocals by Ren Aldridge of Petrol Girls (check them out! Seriously) are a nice touch. The acoustic “Listen” is a nice palate cleanser on the record but unfortunately the song isn’t that engaging and the added string section is a little over the top.
After listening to Our Hell Is Right Here, it started to grow on me. The band is playing really well, the songs are good and the vocals are superb. My personal taste is more on the Exiled part of the spectrum, but I am still onboard and am already looking forward to record number three.
Quirijn’s primary focus for TGEFM is on album reviews and band interviews. When he’s not writing for the site, he can be found mixing sound at Fiction Studio, mixing up beats for as one part of hip-hop duo Breekpunt, or playing guitar for punk quartet Ink Bomb.