I’m quite sure most of us have a hard luck story from our childhood, our teenage years certainly; that ‘outcast’ feeling of being a rock fan definitely applies to most of you who make your way to these cyber pages. Well, imagine then that you had been born in a war torn country in the Middle East, where religious zealots and politicians try and control every aspect of life. Well, that’s the fascinating backdrop to which this band, The Kordz, was formed originally whilst the guys were at university in Lebanon in the early nineties.
These guys bonded over a shared love of this exciting and forbidden music that they had discovered on late night pirate radio stations; and their path along the way has been strewn with obstacles as diverse as national service, civil war, bombing raids from neighbouring states, and secret police interrogations about satanic worship. It’s been a long and arduous journey no doubt, but one that was never in question for these six dedicated and passionate guys; and the eventual results that they have released on this first album are impressive to say the least. With a wealth of experience and material to draw on, the album is packed to the max with a CD-busting sixteen tracks, which get off to a real solid start with the first five songs giving a real Alice in Chains vibe. Six tracks in and the title track ‘Beauty and the East’ sends it into the next level, and what was a very good record becomes a quite excellent one; the mysterious Arabic instrumentalism intertwining with the more familiar sounds to create a seriously exciting and original vibe.
It’s intense in places, creating real dramatic and full sounding anthems like ‘Last Call’ and ‘The End’. The song writing is particularly impressive on a couple of powerful ballads, with melodies so commercially viable they sound almost like they could have taken help from someone like Gary Barlow of top popsters Take That; seriously, check out ‘Save Us’ and ‘The Garden’ and tell me you couldn’t imagine a stadium full of people holding aloft their cigarette lighters.
Highly original and true to their roots, The Kordz deserve to be heard world-wide; even final track, the slightly more clumsy and clichéd ode to hedonistic delights ‘Nic-O-Teen’ is forgivable given the band’s back-ground, I mean if ever a band deserved to sing about being “sick of being told what I can and cannot do,” then it’s these guys. So, stop being upset that Queensryche have fallen out because they are basically a bunch of has-beens and spoilt bastards, and open your heart and ears to the Eastern promise of this bunch of sonic orchestrators, you won’t be disappointed.
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