Mohawk Radio, Oblivion. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Oblivion, the overwhelming sense that beyond this mortal coil of poets of Kings lays the vastness of nothingness; the stranglehold of complete and utter black void where dreams are shattered and lost for eternity. Oblivion though is not always the end, perhaps as with Manchester’s Mohawk Radio’s latest single taken from their current E.P. Halfway To Heaven, it is bit a beginning, a foundation in which eternity is placed within caring hands and then rocked till the heart is exhausted and the sound of stirring vocals caresses the remains.

The introduction of the song is explosive, it introduces itself long before Mia Page, James Gregory, Sean Frankland and Dave Quinn have the chance to play host, the track immediately settles it, makes itself at home and becomes the centre of attention, oblivion be damned, this is a song that is here for the duration.

The thought of nothingness is countermanded by the vocals though. In what feels like the very best of Scandinavian rock and metal coming out in the form of a woman who has the beating heart of Manchester’s finest residing in her veins, despite only being in the city a few short years but with that surety of uniqueness which makes her voice, and the music that grinds its way into your pulse and lays the eggs of a perfect sounding future, so captivating and interesting.

Once heard, Oblivion is impossible to ignore, never to stray into the world alone and forgotten, it is a song that graces the abyss and proves that life can live there. However, it soon pulls itself out by sheer force and allows the listener to look beyond their own sense of the hollow and insincere and is cheered as a new breed of Rock to come out of a city that at times lives in the shadow of a time in which it pushed boundaries.

A pulsating song full of live and depth, Oblivion in this circumstance is obviously the answer.

Ian D. Hall