Lazarus Effect - This End

Any recording that opens with a song entitled 'Wasted Generation' sounds like a distinctly dodgy prospect. The Lazarus Effect have, however, always been a class act. The group first formed while its members were undergraduates in Sheffield in 1999 and moved to London three years ago. They released an album, 'Carnaged and Martyred', under their original name of Lynam in late 2001, and then a five song EP, 'Easily Led', their first under the Lazarus Effect moniker, in mid 2002. The three track 'This End' is their first new recording in nearly two years. It is also the debut EP to feature new guitarist Thom Paisley and to find the original four piece group-vocalist Jonjo McNeill, guitarist Adrian Falconer, bassist Daniel Walton and drummer James Mason-expanded to a quintet. Far thankfully from being an adolescent Blink 182-style punk rant against either parents or the government, 'Wasted Generation' proves to be a spikily intelligent attack from the now mid 20's Lazarus Effect against religious hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness. Abrasive, hazily anthemic guitars that recall New Model Army combine with fiery drum beats and a hoarsely aerobic vocal from McNeill. "'There's no feeling in your healing" he bellows at its powerful conclusion, the twist being that it is the religious powers-that-be themselves that are the wasted generation The buzzsaw guitars are still very much in evidence on the second song, the shimmeringly eerie 'Edge of No End', but the whole tone is softer and gentler, and almost balladic. It finds McNeill, with the recent past having caused him nothing but grief, and the future looking similarly bleak, on the cusp of falling into a deep depression. "Is it blood or is it time on my hands ?" he chides himself over and over with haunted despair. The Lazarus Effect up the pace again for the final track, the thunderously poppy 'Never Coming Back'. An ode to a friend who has lost his girlfriend because of his inability to ever reveal himself emotionally, Falconer and Paisley's' grinding guitars weave and duel against each other waspishly, and the EP comes to a strong finish in a storm of echo and distortion. This End', despite the suspect title of the opening track, is a vibrant and electrical return to form for the Lazarus Effect. With more new material promised for later in the year, they have very convincingly come back. Copies of 'This end' can be obtained from the Lazarus Effect's website www.thelazaruseffect.co.uk

Track Listing:-

Interviews

Interview (2003)

Indie guitar band the Lazarus Effect have been in London for a year after forming Sheffield in four years ago. They talk to John Clarkson about their hunt for a deal, and their ultra-angry new second EP, "Easily Led'

Live Reviews

Verge, London, 17/6/2003

Having moved down from Sheffield last year, the Lazarus Effect have become an increasingly steady presence on London's music scene. Olga Sladeckova catches a most "special" band in action