Imagine if you will a primary school fete, where parents have been getting involved to raise as many funds for the school as possible. We have all attended many of these in our lives, but the one at Wainui school the other month was rather different. Here the suggestion had been made that they ought to have some bands playing, and charge for admission. One of the guys behind this was record label boss and producer Te Matera, who also plays guitar with TSOS. Given that many of the acts that afternoon are signed to Triple A, and that Te Matera was running the sound desk most of the day (having provided it and virtually everything else free of charge), it was only fitting that TSOS found themselves pounding out grunge in broad daylight. It was great to see the kids running around and having so much fun, but some of their parents weren’t quite sure what was going on!
The debut album by TSOS was originally released in 2007, with Te Matera on guitar and vocals (previously with Sundog in the UK), Russell Hansen guitar/vocals (ex-8 Ft Sativa, Hollow), Karl Moore bass/guitars (ex-Hollow) and Mike ‘Bones’ Coney on drums. Although their sound is based very much in grunge metal, there is actually a lot more going on and Te Matera likes to describe them as grunge prog – I wouldn’t quite go that far, but I can certainly understand where he is coming from, especially if you treat the term ‘progressive’ as a way of thinking and of bringing together different ideas and genres as opposed to sounding like another Genesis clone.
Both Te Matera and Russell provide lead vocals, sometimes singing as a hardened emotional duo, and at others letting the other take the spotlight, while in Karl they have a bassist who is actually a better guitarist than either of them so they let him shine as well (Karl really wanted to join the band, but they already had two guitarists and needed a bassist so he took the job – when they play live he mostly plays bass, but the other two also take turns so that he can show what he can do with six-strings as well). This is a very polished album, with small interludes here and there, and enough breaks and dynamics to allow them to really let loose when they want to with maximum effect. This album made such an impact when it was released that they were the top placed NZ band at Rock 2 Wellington in 2008, where they supported the likes of Alice Cooper, Kiss and Ozzy. I’m not a major fan of grunge, but I really like this.
www.aaarecords.com/Symphony-of-Screams/
