Radkey - Dark Black Makeup

For a garage-punk band who have barely even broken into their twenties, Radkey are already pretty damn sure of themselves. There’s no messing around here. Their debut full-length, ‘Dark Black Makeup’ may look like an ambitious effort on the outside – a debut boasting thirteen tracks, after all, is no mean feat - but it’s as sure-footed and solid an effort as any young band could wish for.

Having taken the rough-and-ready sound of their earlier work, their first record manages to boast both a sense of ruggedness and grandeur. From their commanding title track opener to the funkier sounds of ‘Love Spills’, the supercharged ‘Le Song’ all the way through to dark haze that clings to closing track ‘Feel’, the album sees a band growing more and more confident in their own abilities. In fact, it’s only on the odd occasion that their more frantic side rears its head, most notably on the breakneck ‘Glore’.

Less scrappy punk and more slick guitars, there’s an air of the Queens of the Stone Age about their debut, and it’s a sound they wear well. For a young band making their first full and realised mark, this is a sturdy statement to make.