Painted Scars - 2024 - Kintsugi

(24:12; Painted Scars)

Track list:
1. Glow in the Dark 3:20
2. Won’t Give Up! 3:49
3. Knock Knock 5:31
4. Liquid Gold 3:17
5. Freedom 3:26
6. Life and Alive 4:49

Line-up:
Jassy Blue - vocals
Kevin de Brouwer - guitars, vocals
Yannick Rottiers - guitars
Jens Van Geel - bass
Bram Vermeir - drums


Belgian band Painted Scars appears to be a fairly recent formation, with the band establishing an online presence in the summer of 2023. One year later the band were ready with their debut EP "Kintsugi", which was self released in the summer of 2024.

This is a band that I suspect will be regarded as more of a metal band by some older listeners, and probably a bit more of a hard rock band by many that are a bit younger. A band firmly placed on the border between hard rock and heavy metal if you like, making use of elements from both traditions in a few different manners.

The vocals is a bit of a defining feature of this band. Not that having a female singer is that exceptional, but it is always refreshing to hear a female singer using power, grit and melody in a bit more of a punk-oriented manner these days. Which provides a nice variation from all the perfectly controlled female singers with operatic aspirations. The important bit is to have control of course, and in the case of Jassy Blue that control is very much present. Rasp, aggression, power and tone control are firmly established and developed in this case.

The EP as such revolves around mainly short and concise songs, where a little bit of a punk spirit is worked into the combination of hard rock and metal that appears to be the speciality of the band. Tight, hard and suitably aggressive compositions. Many of which, to my ears at least, will be songs that will come across better on stage than on an album, as tight, vibrant and energetic songs of this kind will always be a positive for a band performing live. This is the kind of music that does tend to get a crowd going, to put it that way.

For my sake I found the bonus track here to be a little bit more interesting. Here the pace is a bit slower, the guitar sound darker and richer, and with a compelling riff chugging along and where the guitar solo adds a bit of grit to the proceedings as well. A bit less aggro and a tad more refined, and flexing a little bit more towards the traditional heavy metal spectrum too.

This is a fine debut EP with good songs in general and a couple that showcase solid songwriting and execution to boot. I rather expect that this is a band that go down a storm when they get the chance to play live, as the majority of the songs here strike me as being just the right stuff to fire up an audience. If vibrant and aggressive hard rock with some heavy metal tendencies and a little bit of a punky vibe is music that tend to intrigue you, then this EP should be well worth a listen.

Olav M. Björnsen, January 2025

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/paintedscarsband/