The One Hundred - Chaos and Bliss (2017)

Debut album from The One Hundred. The world has already had a taste of what the Guilford four-piece have got to offer, thanks both to their acclaimed 2014 debut EP Subculture plus their energetic, incendiary live shows, but this is even more energetic and incendiary than anything they’ve done before. Somehow, the band – vocalist Jacob Field, guitarist Tim Hider, bassist Phil Kneller and drummer Joe Balchin – have managed to capture on tape the brute force of their metal/rap/grime crossover sound. Play it at even half volume and it sounds like the band are climbing through the speakers and into the room to terrorize you – in the best possible way. A pulsating, full-throttle and unforgiving blend of hardcore, dance, trance, rap, grime and, yes, r’n’b and hip-hop, the album’s 12 songs spit, shove and snarl their way through the speakers with vicious intent, full of an anger and an energy that few British acts can rival; even more impressive when you consider the band had no expectations when they first started – they were just experimenting with music and trying to make “something different”. That’s an understatement. Not only did the EP pick up rave reviews from national press, but the band’s songs have been played on Radio One and XFM; and in the two or so years they’ve been together, they’ve played festival sets at Sonisphere, NASS, Reading and Leeds, plus Download and Slam Dunk, while tours with Hacktivist, Papa Roach, Mötley Crüe and Alice Cooper, Crossfaith, We Came As Romans and Don Broco have cemented their reputation as a phenomenal live band. That reputation only looks set to continue and grow with the release of the band’s album, which sees them pushing boundaries to their absolute limit with very little regard for convention or tradition… As it happens, it’s almost impossible not to be drawn in by the vicious swirl of noise that The One Hundred create. Across venues all over the country, people have been connecting with the band and their songs on an incredibly visceral level, and for good reason – these are primal, forceful compositions designed not just to provoke a reaction, but to shake you to the very core of your existence. This is a breathless record that surprises at every turn, held together by the band’s in your face, no holds barred attitude. Yet as full of rage and aggression as these songs are – something which makes them perfect to soundtrack a broken, post-Brexit Britain, not to mention Generation Y’s resulting disaffection and dissatisfaction – the inspiration for them isn’t based so much in the real world as fictional domains…

TRACKLIST

01. Dreamcatcher
02. Monster
03. Disengage
04. Dark Matters
05. Fake Eyes
06. Hand Of Science
07. Boomtown
08. Blackjack
09. Retreat
10. Who We Are Now
11. Chaos & Bliss
12. Feast