Release Date: 12th December 2023
Social Link: Instagram
It always seems like such an achievement when a band does everything themselves. From the writing and recording through to mixing and actually releasing and promoting the album. There are so many opportunities to jump for help but when you’ve put so much love and effort into something, seeing it through to the end as your own can feel like the right thing to do. That’s what Kinsley have done with new album VI and its release this week is the end of one part of its journey and the start of the next.
As the title suggests, this is the sixth release by the band but only the second with the band in its current format. For the first few years of Kinsley’s life the band was a childhood friend duo, Christopher Adkins and Adam Staley, but that changed a just over two and a half years ago when one of their other friends, Chris Jones, jumped in and took over some of the guitar and vocal duties. The result in terms of VI is ten songs that span a wide variety of genres and seamlessly transition between them, managing to stay fresh and easy to follow without becoming stale at any point.
Opening track ‘Widow’s Walk’ commences the album in hard rock fashion but doesn’t really stick in there too long. The various genres that the band is seemingly inspired by pour out within minutes. There’s the hard rock core, some grungier elements, post-rock and even a touch of nu-metal in there too. As the song progresses it is clear that this is an album written and performed by people just writing the music they want to. There’s no one looking over their shoulder for something specific, it’s a few mates having fun!
From here they aren’t really any rules to what Kinsley will do with each track. ‘Alone’ combines raw cleans and powerful shouts backed by some groovy riffs and whilst ‘Influx/Efflux’ continues in this vein for its intro the rest of the track shifts between that groove and heavier elements, even managing a little ‘bleugh’ in there too. Elsewhere ‘Murder for a Jar of Red Rum’ slows things down to a hauntingly slow pace for its intro, coming out of left field on an album that has been all about high energy up to this point. Whilst the energy and the riffs pick up after a minute or so, there is still a feeling of overbearingness to the track, though this passes as ‘All Hollow’ sees a slightly more shoegaze-esque track signal the beginning of the end of VI as the appropriately named ‘Drifting Away’ brings this piece to a close with a subtle yet track that still manages to encompass a lot of what came before it.
VI may be the sixth album that this trio have put out, in one incarnation or another, but there’s certainly no lack of imagination or ingenuity missing. Some bands go from strength to strength and it seems like Kinsley may well be one of them!