Pink Narcissus: Blood on the Page: Music Review

With their new 6-track EP, Brighton’s self-styled ‘freak rockers’ Pink Narcissus have sparkled up grunge with a pinch of glitter.

Blood on the Page, opens without fanfare into the spitting Victims, a bloodied and bruised call to arms for those suffering prejudice; it’s a rip-roaring riff-filled gem filled with suitably off-kilter vocals by eccentric front man Oli Spleen.

The posturing Spleen’s decadent delivery counters the biting music of the cool Traps, a trippy number with a sardonic vocal and a great hook before tearing into the first single, Orphan Eyes, a swashbuckling alternative dancefloor-ready glamathon, the driving verses leading to a swirling chorus of fuzzy guitars.

Whilst, PN wear their influences on their sleeves: a bit of Nirvana here, a bit of Bowie there, they retain their own cohesive sound, which effortlessly merges 90s grunge with the pomposity of 70s glam-rock.

The semi-catatonic Great Divide recalls woozy mornings after sleepless heavy nights, the stench of beer and nicotine still lingering, ears still ringing, while the shuffling Yield to the Night, peppered with sparks of Paddy Longlegs‘ guitar, closes the album with unabashed sex appeal from an increasingly unhinged Spleen.

Catch Pink Narcissus at The Green Door Store, Brighton on Tuesday, April 16 at 7pm.

For more info, view: www.reverbnation.com/pinknarcissus