The Sheffield Scenester

‘Condemnation’ is the first ever song that new Sheffield indie rockers Bessemer have put out. It’s a taster for their forthcoming album ‘6 ‘til Midnight’ which the boys & girl are hoping to put out before the summer is over. As always our priority is giving plenty of our time to bands who we haven’t heard that much of whilst out and about, and Bessemer have unfortunately fallen completely under our radar so far, despite having played gigs throughout Sheffield over the past year or so. Although we were impressed with their set at Scenesters Retro Christmas party!

Lead singer/guitarist Adam Moore sent the song across to us recently and we asked him which bands Bessemer are most influenced by, he told us that they are influenced by Oasis, Nirvana, The Beatles, The Doves, The Manics and also a fair bit by Northern Soul music.

So as for the track, ‘Condemnation’ opens with a nice guitar lick, leading straight into the catchy, ‘soundalike’ vocal part, Adam sings ‘Well I can take no more/Of this civil war’ and ‘They don’t want this comdemnation/They just want their education’ this rhyming style can occasionally grate on the listener, but in this song it strangely works. Adam’s vocal is pitch perfect and it’s also boosted by the female backing vocals of bass player Emma Johnson.

As the song continues there is more quality guitar, which spirals above the steady bass line and crashing cymbal lead drum part, and as the song builds to it’s climax all parts meet to hold the listener’s interest right until the end. Adam’s lead vocals remind me of that of Danny MacNamara, lead singer of Embrace who had huge success in the 90’s with ‘All You Good Good People’ & ‘Come Back To What You Know’.

Obviously it’s pretty hard to get a feel of a band from one stand alone track, but Bessemer seem to be heading in the right direction with ‘Condemnation’, I look forward to hearing the rest of the album pretty soon.

Words by James Whitworth