On their latest offering, ‘Poison’, School Disco skilfully strike the balance between substance and style.
The listener is submerged into a sea of grinding guitars and the haunting clatter of chains, making for a brutal listen. Rory Lethbridge’s muted vocals mesh with growling guitars in a similar fashion to bands like Cabbage, as he warns “You never know what it’ll do to you.”
‘Poison’ certainly stands out as one of the darker cuts from their latest record Heads Still Here. Lyrically, the track grapples with themes of addiction and mental health, with Lethbridge stating: “Poison is about the way in which the world demonizes celebrities with addiction problems, making them the centre of some sort of twisted circus rather than treating them as human with very severe mental health problems.”
School Disco cite Black Sabbath and Fuzz as major influences on their sound, which may not come as a surprise for a band who share their name with an Alice Cooper classic. Nonetheless, they wear their influences on their sleeve packing ‘Poison’ with relentless riffs and pounding percussion.
“Now I just better take it slowly” Lethbridge reassures, over distorted science fiction-esque sounds before the track is intercepted by the crash of cymbals and returns to its tumultuous guitar licks.
The Bristol-based three-piece are already making a name for themselves, having toured with indie darlings Wolf Alice. With ‘Poison’, School Disco have really come into their own, crafting a tune that is both lyrically and musically heavy-hitting, and one that is sure to get listeners stomping in time.
Words by Sarah Taylor
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