RIVAL BONES – “Scars / The Great Divide” Singles Review

Reviews
4th May 2018
Lenny Bedford

RIVAL BONES are Liverpool’s resident hard rock duo. Their balls-to-the-wall, two piece rock is reminiscent of bands like Audioslave and Rage Against The Machine, with just a dash of Royal Blood for good measure. With a hefty CV of live shows behind them, including playing at Zandari Festa in South Korea in 2017, RIVAL BONES have become known far and wide as ones to watch on the UK rock scene. 2017 saw the band release their debut, self titled EP which contained belters such as “Hives” and “Want You Madly”, and their latest offerings “Scars” & “The Great Divide” continue to show off the band’s prowess as hard rock monsters.

First, let’s talk about “Scars”. This feral, gut busting creature of a track starts off quite softly, but don’t let that fool you. This track is like a venus fly trap, lulling you into a false sense of security with it’s intro, before snapping shut on your head, as you’ll discover when you are assaulted by the riff 30 seconds in.

The remainder of the song is punctuated by a guitar that shakes your teeth and a gravelly vocal that lays atop the guitars and drums beautifully. When it finally finishes, you’ll want to have a lie down for a while to recoup your senses.

“The Great Divide” came out a few weeks after “Scars”, and what a follow up. This track is more of a groove, with a riff that spins your jaw from the get go, and sounds like a dual guitar and bass set up, not just James’s guitar. The verses are signature RIVAL BONES, with gaps in the guitar to make way for the gruff vocals to cut through. The chorus has a catchy vocal line that climaxes into the nasty riff yet again.

We had the pleasure to see RIVAL BONES at the Soup Kitchen in Manchester in February, where they supported Leeds band Fizzy Blood, and what a show that was. Watching frontman James wrestle a massive wall of sound out of his dual amp set up, while drummer Chris slaps his kit all over the room was a sight to behold.

We’re ecstatic to see them again at Sound City 2018, where they will be hitting up our stage at The Baltic Social on the 6th of May. Finally, here’s the video for ‘Scars’!