SINGLE REVIEW – THE MONTAGUES – Devils

I first encountered Kyle Parry when he was performing at a school fair and immediately realised that here was a young man blessed with a superb voice and an innate ability to connect with an audience.

OK, it wasn’t quite The Quarrymen at Woolton Fete, but it’s fair to say that he’s gone on to establish an enviable reputation across the region’s pub circuit, playing mostly covers but slipping in as many original songs as the crowds at these venues will tolerate before the inevitable cries of “Can you play Wonderwall mate?”.

There’s never been any doubting that Kyle wanted to be recognised as a writer as much as a performer though, and with the advent of The Montagues he has finally found a berth in which to make his bid for (inter)national acceptance as someone capable of much more than banging out Ed Sheeran covers at the local Red Lion.

The four piece were establishing themselves a burgeoning reputation across the region when COVID hit, slamming the brakes onto an indie juggernaut that was rapidly gaining a momentum that would otherwise have been unstoppable.

They’ve dropped a new single this week called Devils which has been prised from their “Calibrate” EP and the song is as good a starting place as any for any would-be initiate to the Montagues ever-increasing fan base.

The song is ushered in on what amounts to a false intro, a snatch of it rising as if from behind the closed door of a basement venue, before a piercing guitar line leads song and band into full bloom.

The verse has plenty of muscle to propel it along but it is the chorus, when it unfolds, that is absolutely glorious, the kind of rock n roll behemoth that James Dean Bradfield unleashed to effectively save the Manics‘ career in the aftermath of the disappearance of Richey Edwards.

It’s a rush of a tune that is kept within the constraints that pure melody demands, but you can sense that it is on the point of bursting open into a state of sheer abandon, an effect that it certainly visits upon its audience in a live setting.

Obviously none of us can be sure of when live shows can return, but the band have pencilled in a return to gigging at the Late Lounge in Rhyl on Saturday, August 21 when they’ll be joined by Notora and Lucid Waters.

From there the possibilities are as endless as the road itself….