The Heavy - Great Vengeance and Furious Fire

Genre alternative Publisher Counter Records External Links Counter Records Website

Depending on perspective, The Heavy sounds nothing like what the name suggests. The Heavy comes from Noid in the Southwest U.K. and is compromised of 5 members and multiple instruments not limited to but including guitars, bass, drums, and all sorts of horns. One of the most interesting releases of 2008, their album Great Vengeance and Furious Fire is everything that can be strangely tempting about music.

'Brukpocket's Lament' is an old fashioned R&B song with a slightly modern twist. The sound is distant as though it is being heard through an ancient record player. The melody lives with the bass that mulls under vocalist Swaby's tale of a deranged man on the verge of something like suicide. Great Vengeance and Furious Fire's second take sounds more like contemporary R&B and circus rock. Dubbed 'Coleen', the song is filled with Mo-Town like backing vocal arrangements and horns that almost punch through the song at times. 'Set Me Free' is more pop driven but does not diverge too much from the themes that the album has already started. The song also features the warm tones of Hannah Collins at vocals as she sings the coda "all you've got to do is set me free". One of Great Vengeance and Furious Fire's sleeper tracks is 'Doing Fine'. There is nothing special about this song and it is mostly sluggish. However, 'Doing Fine' really does fine with in it's creative passivism.

'Dignity' sounds like something you might here from Jack Black or the White Stripes. This track banks on it's attitude as Swaby irately declares "You're always fuckin' with my dignity". 'Our special Place' is a song that sells itself as a folk ballad until it starts drooling with witty satire. 'Girl' has by far the catchiest pop culture appeal. Melodically it is based on a simple and repeating hook and the rhythm is a standard kick, snare, kick pattern. This song is fantastic because of it's vocals. What begins as a casual rhyme with lines like "Girl I always see on your own and I don't know why because you're ffffit" and "Girl I think you need to come around to my yard for some tea, now I've got herbal, chamomile, and coffee". When things shift gear they do so ever so slightly; this is a feel good song. 'Who needs Sunshine' is Great Vengeance and Furious Fire's last track and most of them time we're not missing anything. The song makes a turn for the better half way through however when Swaby's declares "Who needs the sunshine when you're here?" Although very basic and seemingly un-poetic, it becomes a memorable coda because it finishes the album much in the way it began: good old fashioned R&B.

Overall, Great Vengeance and Furious Fire by the Heavy is one of the more confusing records of 2008. It keeps you off balanced, yet in control while you're never quite sure which direction it will go in next. Although it lacks most conceivable formulas that would birth a successful album and fails at producing a true radio single, you just might get the weird sensation that it was all by design.