Sway

Description

Ease off the pressure, why? Headcharger is blowing out its twentieth candle with vigor, like stoking the embers of a fire ready to flare up again. Three years after Rise from the Ashes, an album celebrating the strong comeback of a band that never shifted into second gear and was happy to welcome two new members ready to do battle, here comes the time for Sway, the eighth discographic beating delivered by the Norman combo. A record that smells both of urgency and the desire to fight, on which Sébastien Pierre’s voice returns to its rough, raw-edged side and which is the result of an even more collective effort than its predecessor, with Antoine Cadot (drums) and David Vallée (guitar and backing vocals) this time having had the time to take part in the songwriting process from the very beginning alongside David Rocha (guitar) and Romain Neveu (bass). After seven albums that revisited with equal success hard rock, hardcore, stoner and the best of 90s indie rock, Headcharger fully embraces a status that has puzzled more than a few label-happy poseurs: too metal for rockers, too rock for metalheads. And so what? That’s also what makes this band so unique. Where Rise from the Ashes at times reminded us of the nineties sound and Foo Fighters, Sway evokes the rawer energy of a Cave In or a Poison the Well. If melody is still very much present, the band seems to have regained a taste for shouting its anger when it comes time to tackle more tense subjects, with this insolent, unclassifiable success.