William The Conqueror

Likethe sportsman cutting chipped teeth in the lower leaguesbefore shooting to the very top, this band have lugged allthe amps, placated the in-house sound guy for an easierlife, their nails dirty, their hair unkempt.

Enough. Except it’s never enough, because despite their slinky,swampy, razor-sharp, blues-drenched, guitar thrashed alt. rock songs that form new album ‘Maverick Thinker’and suggest that the door is opening for bigger roomsand broader audiences, it’s those sticky basement barstages where the songs have always shed a skin andcome alive. The record put the three piece behind theglass at Sound City Studios in LA, treading the samecarpet as the likes of Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Neil Young,and Fleetwood Mac and they might well have inhaledthe spirit of them all. William The Conqueror’s protagonist is Ruarri Joseph,who knows his way around a melody and a verse.Joseph’s wryness suggests life just ain’t plain sailin’ andhe fizzes that sigh and lament into something thatbreathes heavy with heart and with soul.