Theo Verney - Heavy Sunn

Brighton noise-maker Theo Verney knows a thing or two about the D.I.Y. approach. Verney records, produces and mixes his own material; a formula he’s replicated on latest EP ‘Heavy Sunn’, which follows 2013 releases with D.I.Y. labels Italian Beach Babes and Art Is Hard Records.

Verney’s talent isn’t the subject of questioning here. Rather, it’s the success of capturing his live shows on record, where he’s usually boosted the support of a full band. What emerges is a collection of diverse and heady curios intent on being evil, making no allowances for time or even a spare inhalation.

It’s an EP defined by all things loud, heavy and melodic. Smouldering metallic guitars figure Verney with the demeanour of a miscreant child, promising to ‘wile out’ with unapologetic hedonism, in the EP’s title track. The mean street-hustler strut of ‘Heavy Sunn’ is coupled with ‘Wailing Road’, a riot of sinful riffage with Verney coercing you to ‘take it all, take it again and again’.

‘Heavy Sunn”s wild abandon and bitter aftertaste suits a generation undergoing a collective post-summer hangover. Verney apes brutal licks across these eleven minutes of burnt-out and bloating episodes and the attestation of his talent is his ability to be both hooky and hard. ‘Heavy Sunn’s’ strengths lie in its songs’ confident, heavy crunch and in the small touches of experimentation. It stays true to Verney’s original dark and heavy roots, but now, he’s moving forward with only the shred of the shackles that fettered him before.