A Twisted Carnival – ‘Stay The Night’ – A Dark, Damp, Yet Warming Debut.

A Twisted Carnival – London, England, United Kingdom.

Photography by Peter Clark.

Back in April, we reviewed an album by London based Stoner Rock/Grunge outfit, Brain Ape. Brain Ape as a four-piece are currently on hiatus for now, but not to worry, it’s nothing bad – just that whole “life” thing.

Click Here for the article, where the album is also up for a FREE download.

Anyway, three quarters of Brain Ape have formed a new band entitled, A Twisted Carnival and have recently released their debut album – Stay The Night. I asked Minky, Sol and Mr. Siberian Alien what the influences were for this new project and they answered: ‘Josh Homme, System Of A Down and Karnivool‘.

No surprise there really, as they are listed on Facebook as – ‘Totally not Queens of The Stone Age-y. Ok. I lied’.

Brain Ape’s sound was heavily laced with Grunge and even had flirtations with Punk, Hardcore, Blues ANNND Post-Rock. So, as you can imagine, I was particularly interested to receive the tracks from this new project.

Stay The Night

The differences between bands are clear from the off, you can tell it’s still like-minded (the same) individuals but there is more than enough in the way of changes to cater for listeners of both bands.

Anyway, ‘White Sight’ and it’s dreary Stoner Rock gloom is a great opener.

‘Scared To Sleep’ adds some brief Punk/Grunge elements before breaking back to a more QOTSA set of verses. It’s a good song, but it suffers by it’s own recording, especially in the vocals.

‘Echoes’ is a banger but a chilled banger and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Some days I like to listen to blues and ‘Someday Blues’ is perfect for that, it’s another quiet one though, so get the Tea-Light candles out and make yourself a little nest to curl up in.

The finale of this eight-track mini album comes in the form of ‘Sleepless Nights’. Rocking in at 8:48, it’s the longest on the album and utilises more of the bluesy-gloom that the album oozes well enough. Before adding some gloomy-low-gritty-riffage and a Punk-Rock enema in the latter parts.

The following links are probably useful:

• The band can be found via their Facebook page.
• For videos and general listening, head to their Youtube Channel. NOTE: There might be some Brain Ape Stuff on there. Might.
• Stay The Night can also streamed and downloaded for FREE on the bands Schlimbum Records, where CD hard copies can also be purchased.

#StayFresh