Psycho-Narco

“I grew up in a small town, dreaming of how to burn it down.”

Not the sort of sentiment you’d expect from a bunch of 30-somethings who should have left their rebellious days far behind them. But so scowls Ricky Warwick on ‘Galvanise’, the opening track on The Almighty’s ‘comeback’. Or should that be ‘goback’, for this is the same old Almighty with the same three chord tricks, the same sing-along choruses and the same anthems of angst and revolution they had in their hey-day.

And what a hey-day that was. Back at the beginning of the ’90s, The Almighty had everything going for them: a Top 20 hit with ‘Free ‘N’ Easy’, vids on

MTV, hell, even an opening slot on the legendary 1992 Monsters of Rock billing at Donington Park. Then it all went to pot with Warwick’s departure in 1996.

Psycho-Narco sees Warwick and tub-thumper Stumpy Monroe back together again bolstered by the addition of Nick Parsons on six-string and Gav Gray on bass.

Signed to the burgeoning Sanctuary Group, home to Motorhead and Megadeth, things might look rosy for The Almighty, but there just doesn’t seem to be that much to get excited about on this release. Sure, we can hear what they were once capable of on ‘Galvanise’, ‘Soul On A Roll’ and ‘Begging’, the latter nodding its head firmly in the direction of Therapy. These are all feisty turbocharged rockers, but very little else, with the exception of ‘Waiting For Earthquakes’, the undisputed standout track, is memorable.

It would seem all The Almighty’s best riffs were used up in their earlier career. And, at the end of the day, this sort of bar-room rock ‘n’ roll is only going to appeal to old fans, hungry for the nostalgia of yesteryear. A prime case of how The Almighty have fallen.