Who'd have thought that out of the messy sludge that nu-metal trawled out of the swamp with it, a glistening gem such as Hundred Reason's hotly-tipped debut Ideas Above Our Station could appear from Surrey and blow everything else out of the murky waters? Ideas Above Our Station is a genuinely solid rock album of immediate quality. Heavy metal? This is precious metal--a true diamond in the dirt: rock without pretension, but fuelled by canisters of sheer emotion and raw energy. It's exciting, it's immediate and it will start a fire in your belly. There are shades of early Pearl Jam here, particularly in the first single "If I Could", but such comparisons on their own are unfair--witness the gloriously deranged guitar of "Shine" or the restrained brutality of live favourite "Silver". The only trouble is their immediacy often suffocates their fragile melodies, whereas bands such as My Vitriol and Feeder have always elevated them to the forefront of their songs. What it lacks in finesse it makes up for in sheer dewy-eyed belief--there may be silver here, but they'll have to dig a little deeper to produce pure gold. "In my hands good fortune", frontman Doran near-croons on "Falter". On the basis of this, it is well deserved. --Ben Johncock (Review copyright Amazon.co.uk)
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