Photo Credit: Cameron Brisbane
There aren’t many musicians we can claim are from my home town of Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, but VUKOVI‘s Janine Shilstone is one of those as I discovered when their third album NULA was released in 2022. Now, three years on, the duo are back with their new album MY GOD HAS GOT A GUN, and it’s surely their best album to date.
It’s a very brief opener with THIS IS MY LIFE AND MY TRAUMA, as those words are sang in an almost chorus manner before the guitar and drums drop. GUNGHO was one of the early releases giving fans a taster of what was to come. The focus is mainly on the vocals for this one and Shilstone excels at this, while keeping her authentic Scottish accent. Next up is the album title track MY GOD HAS GOT A GUN – the band recently released a video for this song and it’s well worth a watch. One of the best on the record, the deeply personal song explores depression and features some strong lyrical moments, with lines such as “Got a trigger finger pointing straight at my conscience and your fucking greed” and “My god has got a gun and he works me to the bone.”
FALLEN BEYOND is a synth-led song and delves back to the band’s original alt-metal sound. This one should go down well at the upcoming live shows, the vocals once again are a standout. FUC KIT UP continues the inward introspection as Shilstone screams “I know you’ll fuck it up,” taking us deeper into the exploration around mental illness. MISTY ECSTASY is another of the early releases and begins with thunderous guitar and drums, keeping the bpm high. This is one of the heaviest tracks on the album, working well alongside a very catchy chorus that will sound amazing live when the fans scream it back to the stage – this song will definitely get a few mosh pits started!
There has been a definite shift from the synth-led metalcore on this album, with the slight change of direction focusing more on the vocals that are outstanding throughout, while also allowing Hamish Reilly more freedom to express himself through his guitar work. “SNO is a raw, emotional journey that captures the fragility and power of confronting your inner shadows. Vulnerability dancing with heavy-as-fuck guitars felt like the perfect soundtrack for an exorcism of trauma,” Janine Shilstone comments. We can’t disagree with those comments, it’s yet another outstanding piece of music with more thought provoking lyrics: “Oh heroin can you keep me clean, I want an angel in the snow to hold my cold body”.
COWBOY is one of the longest tracks on the album and focuses on the vocals once again, but also has some nice guitar breaks, synth and even violin at one point. Elsewhere, PEEL boasts of “sadistic knife crimes” based on horror themes. As we near the end of our 44-minute journey through the different dimensions of the human mind, KITTY opens with a nice synth-led beat verging on post-hardcore metal, in the style of bands such as Future Palace.
Sometimes it’s easy to lose interest in an album towards the end, but MY GOD HAS GOT A GUN keeps you excited right until the end and doesn’t drop off until the final track BLADED finishes. The music blends perfectly with the vocals and the synth work is a standout. From start to finish this record takes you to the corners of your mind that you sometimes try to avoid and is well worth a listen.
VUKOVI head out on a European tour, supported by unpeople and Artio, later this month, before heading home for four UK dates in Bristol, London, Manchester and wrapping it up with a homecoming show in Glasgow. We can’t wait!
9/10
Standout Tracks: MY GOD HAS GOT A GUN, FALLEN BEYOND, MISTY ECSTASY, SNO
For Fans Of: Cassyette, Boston Manor, Dream State
Written by: Alan Brown
