Irish heavy-metallers Glyder are a throwback to the pre-grunge, pre-poodle era of traditional down and dirty heavy rock. Indeed, they’re making such waves abroad that they’ve attracted the mixing skills of producer Chris Tsangarides (Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Ozzy) for this album, on which he also added keyboards.
Ten tracks clocking in at 40 minutes suggests a band not exactly hanging about, and that’s the way it goes, right from the drama-laden off with ‘Gamblers Blues’, which packs a towering rock’n’roll punch and boasts cracking guitar work. ‘Sweets’ has echoes of Lizzy, and that band’s presence is also felt on ‘Walking My Own Ground’ and ‘For Your Skin’, a slow ballad decorated by Tsangarides’ keys. ‘Puppet Queen’ has melodic reminders of Rory, and the title track is a real tasty item, brimful of hooky melodies and a fine arrangement. ‘The Merrygoround, meanwhile,’ could be Lizzy The Hoople.
While some of the lyrics are truly clumsy on ‘Dark Meets Light’ and ‘Over And Over’ (a prog-rock track that musically turns up the heat), they spin an unsettling yarn about teenage gun crime on the graphic ‘Sleeping Gun’.
Glyder use their twin guitars to the max, and in vocalist Tony Cullen have a gritty frontman who avoids the macho excesses of so many other exponents of the genre. The playing is full of energy and stays focused and on target. I hope that in due course Glyder will emerge from the shadows of their influences to find their own truly original style. Until then, this album will do nicely.