Nine Black Alps. To some of us the band name conjures up images of the mysterious, dark chocolate Toblerone bar. More literate music fans, however, may recognise that this Mancunian four-piece have actually stolen their moniker from a line of poetry by Sylvia Plath.
So does that make them morbid feminists wailing over a wall of white noise? Well, yes and no. They certainly enjoy the occasional angry crie du coeur but their sexual politics are a little less well-defined. What isn’t in any doubt is who their chief influences are – Nirvana and Elliott Smith.
Songs like ‘Cosmopolitan’ and ‘Not Everyone’ follow the strict doctrine of grunge right down to the obligatory shouted chorus. The only problem is that Nine Back Alps don’t give off that same sense of nihilistic abandonment that their Seattle predecessors did. It’s not from a lack of trying either; lead singer Sam Forrest does his best to seem disaffected but his voice lacks the snarl of a Kurt Cobain and his lyrics are anaemic in comparison.
On ‘Behind Your Eyes’, Nine Black Alps put aside their frenzied guitar playing to try a spot of acoustic melancholy. The result is a song that could almost have belonged to Elliott Smith, but again lacks the acute despondency needed to make it authentic.
Everything Is falls into the trap that has snared so many debut albums before it – it imitates all the bands that Nine Black Alps want to become. Which is a pity really, because as their impressive single ‘Shot Down’ proved, they’re perfectly capable of coming up with their own melodic and appealing sound. There may well be good things to come from them in the future but for the moment Nine Black Alps have a mountain to climb.