Redeemon are a Metalliska seven piece from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, a town on the outskirts of London. After inclusion on the influential What Do You Know About Ska Punk and The Shape of Ska Punk to Come, they are generating quite a following for their FIVE track upcoming debut.

Operation Burnout starts with a rolling floor tom and we are introduced to a slow brass and horn combo before a lone guitar and strings start to build the track and then into a boss doom metal riff which gets you stomping. The middle eight is structurally reminiscent of Joystick! and the vocal rhythms of System of a Down. Frequent drop outs by all but guitar, bass and drums helps the track to break down and build up. This is clever stuff. A lone trumpet in the middle of the mix carries a motif and lightens the tune and then gets taken down by the sax. A slow builder and a smouldering start.

Pressure Switch builds dramatically with Candlemassesque choralisations and a doom metal riff before the staccato horns. This is the heaviest track of the five and gives the neck something to complain about. The horn breaks are almost baroque in their style. This is a mean, brooding track which frequently changes pace and has these awesome build ups and downs throughout. Doomy as hell.

Then (for me anyways) the jewel in the crown – Anaphylactic. This is an insane piece of work. It’s all over the place which appeals to my Cardiacs sensibilities. Heavy, funky, skanking… smidges of BYOB by SOAD with how it builds and falls but done better. I can’t express how good this is. Pook’s voice suits this song perfectly. Slightly abrasive in the noisy bits and angelic in the quietus. The horns drive the motif of the song which is really cool. This has you skanking, moshing and pogoing in equal measures. What a rush.

Finest Mistakes lumbers along next. Rumbling metal and dramatic Batman POW sounding horns fuel this beast. It’s during this song that you really understand that this is Metalliska. This is not metal with horns. The horns really are part of the neural network of the band. It would be great without the horns, but with them it’s majestic. Some of the guitar and horn interplay remind me of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray and it works really well here.

Finally, the longest track Escapade weighing in at over six minutes long. This a finely structured tune that builds for almost two minutes before the rousing chorus of We Need a Simpler Way kicks in. Structurally, this reminds me of Lapsus Linguae and at the halfway point this funk, groove metal thing bursts and the whole damn thing goes into overdrive. The horns punch you in the guts and the coupling of bass and drums makes this huge. Anthemic.

Redeemon releases next month.