Skarlett Riot – “Tear Me Down” [Album Review]

Skarlett Riot are a female-fronted rock band so, while instantly the Paramore comparisons come out, it will only take one listen to their full-length debut, Tear Me Down, to realise that those comparisons are just a cheap way of filling column inches without any effort on the writer’s part.

For a start, Skarlett Riot hail from Scunthorpe, it’s never sunny there and it’s not in America. Scunthorpe is a fairly tough English town at the best of times, so for a band like Skarlett Riot, a band who don’t fit into the stereotypical “pint and a fight” crowd, they must stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. If you’ve read this far and you’ve still got preconceptions as to what Skarlett Riot sound like, be prepared. This rock quartet are happy to admit their sound doesn’t “follow any scene” and they don’t have the instant pop-rock hit factor but, on the other hand, the gritty, dirty, riffy rock n’roll peddled by the English quartet is perfect for the kind of spit ‘n’ sawdust rock venues that you find hidden away in exactly the sort of town Skarlett Riot hail from.

Likened to bands like Velvet Revolver, Tear Me Down is a ballsy album, full of the sort of edgy, gritty rock that would go down well with a Joan Jett crowd as well as it would with a Velvet Revolver crowd. Tracks like “Faded Memory” are dirty, leather-clad rockers that stink of attitude which, when paired up with Skarlett’s fiery lyrics, are a match made in rock ‘n’ roll hell.

Even when the band slow it down on songs like “Broken Wings”, the attitude shines through but, by the time you’ve reached that point of Tear It Down, there is no doubting that this is a band who look and sound like they’ve weathered the indifference that comes from being a rock band in a British town and are more than up for fighting their corner.

Track Listing:

01. Faded Memory
02. What We’ve Become
03. Adrenaline
04. Rock N Roll Queen
05. Lost
06. Tear Me Down
07. Villain
08. Broken Wings
09. Party Hard
10. Riot

Run Time: 38:20
Release Date: March 25, 2013

Check out a sample of the song “Tear Me Down”