Motorfingers: Goldfish Motel

Not to be confused with logic(il)logic label mates Badmotorfinger, Motorfingers are yet another band emanating from Italy; this time calling Modena home. The quirkily titled Goldfish Motel is the band's second full release, following on from 2012's Black Mirror, with a further two EPs also to the outfit's name.

Across the album there's a little bit of everything on the go, a base hard rock attack informed by the aggression of Metallica, while also keeping an eye on the current Alter Bridge/Black Stone Cherry scene. The strongest flavour, however, is that of grunge, the 90s grit and angst of Alice In Chains influencing much of what goes on here. Although a more 'upbeat' smash of Black Sabbath riffology is also combined to the dark brood of Soundgarden in places. Singer, Abba (yes, really, maybe he's hoping he can win and take it all?) keeps it simple, a gritty, gravely approach fitting the overall mood really well, even if he isn't the most tuneful of chaps. Something that might be intentional, but does at times feel like a narrow source of colours being drawn from in the hope of not spoiling the mood. In that light his contributions fit the remit to a tee but across the album a little more variation would help maintain the interest.

Musically it's a similar picture, a good set of songs only really suffering from a refusal to step too far from the template set out early on from "Walk On Your Face", "Behind The Fire" or "Burning Down". The argument could be, if it ain't broke don't fix it, and with the guitars from Max and Spezza (don't blame me for the silly names) spitting out healthy doses of aggressive melody, and bassist, Faust, and drummer, Alex (more work required on that nickname Mr. Alex!) tightly locked in place, it's difficult to pull out too much to criticise… And yet that doesn't automatically assure that everything in the Goldfish Motel smells of rose petal air-freshener, the faintest whiff of previously used sheets noticeable as the grunge style is sometimes too closely adhered to.

The acoustic and violin led "Nothing But A Man" certainly offers a different take on things and sounds assured as it does so, while the more up and at 'em pulse of "Disaster" does vigorously stoke the fire in the Motorfingers belly. However, as seems to be the case with a lot (and there is a lot) of the bands coming out of Italy at the moment, one of the biggest stumbling blocks is the stop-start nature of their release schedules and the lack of opportunity to get out there and road test new material. However the scene simply seems to keep on growing and is slowly gaining some real momentum. More bands like Motorfingers, getting more opportunities to get their sounds out there, can only help the music they clearly love, flourish.

Track Listing
1. Walk On Your Face
2. Behind This Fire
3. Obscene
4. The Day Of Dawn
5. XXXIII
6. Burning Down
7. Nothing But A Man
8. Pull The Tail
9. Disaster
10. Tonight
11. Eat Your Gun

Added: August 14th 2017
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Motorfingers online
Hits: 1186
Language: english

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