A Long Way From Tipperary

We were sold a lie. Amid talk of new millenniums, new dawns and new ideals, the 21st Century has so far failed to deliver anything that comes close to the hype. We were promised a new beginning and all we got was the same old shit. We mortgaged our souls building a dome-shaped museum reflecting our society, our history, our achievements and our aspirations only to find that nobody wanted to see it. We elected a man of the people and watched him mutate into a tyrant before our own eyes. Our future s in the hands of fools and we re staring down the barrel of a dead century. One Minute Silence, please.

RIGHT, GAME on. That little requiem for the millennium is from the nice, upbeat, two-page promotional companion to Buy Now . . . Saved Later, the second studio album from a London-based rap metal outfit who ve been heralded as the best British band in years and, appropriately enough, the brightest hopes for the future.
They re called One Minute Silence. In their relatively short lifetime, they ve toured the world supporting some of the biggest names in the genre, have earned a reputation as one of the most incendiary live acts on the planet, and have been credited in certain quarters as having almost single-handedly resuscitated the aged and ailing metal scene in Britain. Oh, and their lead vocalist is from Templemore a small North Tipperary town more synonymous with the Garda Siochana than with screaming, anarchic rock stars.
Like many an Irish young lad, Brian Barry grew up surrounded by music. His father, Joe, is Pipe Major with the Thomas McDonagh Pipe Band in Templemore, and their home was always full of musicians including, one one occasion, a Native American who treated the family to a traditional war dance in the kitchen, using an Irish drum and a cushion.
Naturally enough, Brian s own music career began in his father s band, where he played pipes before moving on to drums. And it was young Barry who hammered the toms when he and some friends went on to form a metal band called Freak.
We were just some kids fooling around, says Brian from his London home. I m sure we thought it was something but, you know, we just hadn t a clue!
Maybe not, but that didn t stop them leaving Templemore and heading for London, in search of fame and fortune.
I was 19. We arrived in London expecting, like, to be rich and famous in a week or something. Instead, the reaction was like Shut up and sit down! .
Like many a dream before it, then, the Freak fantasy died a swift one. Mr Barry, though, refused to shut up they do call him Yap, after all, and he didn t get that name for nothing. He refused to sit down, too, and after several lean years of hard slog, he formed Near Death Experience with guitarist Chris Ignatiou, bassist Glen Diani, and drummer Eddie Stratton. Fusing traditional power metal with hip hop and a good healthy dose of political savvy, the band proceeded to kick ass, the only blip on their upward trajectory being the discovery that two other bands bore the same name. Not wishing to court lengthy legal headaches, NDE became One Minute Silence.
By the time they were finally signed in 1997, their constant touring and explosive live performances had built them an extensive fanbase and had many in the British rock press raving. Their highly-acclaimed debut album, Available In All Colours, arrived at a time when American bands were ruling the roost, and few serious metal fans would have expected that the next major force in the genre would be homegrown.
In the year that followed, One Minute Silence consolidated their lofty position at the top of the heap, touring America with the likes of Biohazard, Sevendust and Sepultura, and playing Mount Fuji in Japan with Marilyn Manson, and Holland s Dynamo Festival, where new guitarist Massy Fiocco experienced the proverbial baptism of fire, having replaced founder member Chris Ignatiou jut a week earlier.
1998 also saw Yap return to Ireland, when OMS played support to the Deftones in Belfast and at the SFX in Dublin.
That was something really special, says Yap. It was, like, my first time home with a band, and after the show we d meet these fans and they just couldn t fucking believe that here was this Irish guy singing with a metal band, throwing himself around the stage! It was like, Jesus, this Irish guy did it! An Irish guy! And they were like, Whoa! Go on Ireland! .
Last summer, however, saw Brian take a few well documented steps backwards.
Yeah. I collapsed in the middle of a show. I d gotten the flu at home, then went on tour, and it turned into pneumonia in Japan and I spent a bit in hospital. Then I was a bit of an idiot, I went straight from having a drip in my arm back on tour, and the whole thing caught up on me then. My body just shut down. I can be a bit silly sometimes! But I try to look after myself now. I just have to remember to drink a lot. Of water!
That spot of bother put paid to the band s plans for an EP release then, but after a much-needed rest, they went back to the studio to kick start their second album accompanied by producer Colin Richardson, whose previous knob-twiddling credits include Napalm Death, Machine Head, and Fear Factory.
The fruits of that labour have now arrived, in the form of Buy Now . . . Saved Later, a diverse collection of tracks which, while still very much rap metal of the American model, seems more heavily influenced by traditional metal practitioners like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, and even Led Zepelin particularly so in Barry s vocals on tracks like the sublime Fish Out Of Water . This listener also thought he could hear echoes of David Byrne about the place.
I ve actually tried to bring some traditional Irish influence to this one, is Yap s surprise response. It s something we ve kinda wanted to do for a while. So if you hear David Byrne there, well, that s fine. If someone else hears The Chieftains, that s great too.
Well, maybe it s because I ve only played the album 45 times yet, but that Chieftains thing still escapes me.
Buy Now . . . Saved Later is released on April 21st. The single, Holy Man , is out on April 14th. One Minute Silence are also set to play dates in Dublin and Belfast in June.