Glaswegian four-piece Pretty Creatures have that penchant for astutely controlled loudness that only the truest bands have. Their music strikes a fine balance. The riffs are catchy enough to please the casual listener but bent, gnarled and twisted enough to keep the metal fans on side. There are even moments on the band’s latest single `It’s Coming’ that are reminiscent of some of Idles’ slower moving cuts.
The band are not the first to take this more sanitised approach to the sludgier side of metal. In the early 2000s, Queens of the Stone Age cleaned up the nastier elements of the genre, combined them with stellar production and songwriting and created some of the most loved records of the era – while, like Pretty Creatures, maintaining a balance that avoids alienating the die-hards.
However, there are occasions when `It’s Coming’ is a little too convincing – vocalist Rory Boyle sounding particularly like Josh Homme during the song’s slower passages. Listeners won’t find the similarity as egregious as Greta Van Fleet’s spectacular Led Zeppelin impersonations, but the similarity is clear.
Inevitably, this lack of individuality may prove off-putting for some. But provided this song is approached correctly, the unpredictability of its winding guitar passages and progressions is thrillingly performed – the band tight enough to be comprehensible but never retreating from a variety of enjoyable sloppiness. The instrumental is surprisingly singable given its aggressive, stand-offish exterior and while Boyle’s vocals are at times boilerplate, they make for a consistently compelling listen.