Album Review: Kiss The Gun – Nightmares

Kiss the Gun are a new act, formed in early 2016 by bassist Dave South and vocalist Nadin Zakharian. Zakharian is well known in her native Georgia (the country, not the US state) where she’s fared well in TV talent shows, adding some rock to the usual bland pop-friendly affairs.

They recruited guitarists Gerry Hearn and Graham Exton, and drummer Rob Taylor who decided to show off a little and add some trombone to proceedings as well. Because rock n’ roll!

Nightmares is their debut album and it’s more of a dream, to be honest. It’s more hard rock than metal, though there’s definitely a heavy sound to the rhythm guitars and Zakharian’s vocals definitely push things into the symphonic arena. One listen to opener “Into The Fire” with its brilliantly simple main riff gives her a chance to show off her fantastic voice. Thing is, this is just a warmup as she exceeds this in “This Is The Time”, though I do prefer the actual music in the former.

Typical of a rock album, there is a nice spread of song types and all the band members get their chance to shine. “Writing On The Wall” starts with a dirty, crunchy riff which has me expecting Phil Lynott to kick off vocals before becoming a more melodic affair. “Drowning” is the mandatory acoustic ballad, and one I confess I just couldn’t get into. It’s beautiful, but it just didn’t tug at my heartstrings – perhaps I’m missing some. I much preferred the toe-tappers and head-nodders, like “Run Run Run” and fist-raising closer “From The Night”.

Overall, this is an impressive debut and one of which the band can be proud. Production is top notch and they have a great sound which gathers from many places without sounding like they’re trying to be anyone else.

Nightmares is out now through 3MS music

Kiss The Gun: official | facebook | twitter

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments