I’ll clarify something – I do get submissions that I go back to folks and say this track isn’t ready yet. What I post are reviews of tracks that have had the full audit of studio work from A to Z, and if they’re not there, I will advise the artist as much, as I personally feel I can only review a finished track. This song, Madness, by the wonderful Investigator, is ready. Ready for lift-off, because it’s freaking ballistic!

With an emotive melody, some absolutely colossal sounding drums, an up beat tempo and some blistering guitars, Investigator is making the very definite statement that this is a name to watch. When a band enlists workhorse Scott Seabright as producer, and gets the mastering done by Chris Chetland at Kog, then you know they have intentions.

We have an orchestration straight out of the hard rock manual. The drums are as mentioned, colossal – thanks to former Autozamm skin walloper Jasper de Roos. They drive the energy and tempo, and twinned with the nicely toned bass, keep this song tempered yet screaming out its angst. Rhythm guitar is very power chordsy and meaty, distortion nicely balanced so as not to warp it, but kept like a guttural snarl. Cool as a cool thing that’s cooler than something that ain’t so cool. There’s a twinned lead/rhythm piece too, where we can hear some picking and some sonics as the lead player extrapolates nicely. Scott and Chris keep the volume nicely in check, and we get an orchestration that really kicks. Adrian played most of the guitar parts himself.

Style-wise I would call the instrumentation somewhat akin to what you’d get if emo legends My Chemical Romance fell into a vat with the Foos. The melody is emotive and somewhat embittered, however it’s got a chorus that is outrageously catchy and commercially viable while still retaining that slightly dystopian vibe. You will be humming and singing it, believe me. Adrian delivers yet another intense vocal performance, easily pitching perfectly in his crystal tenor. Some quality BVs add to the intensity of the chorus, and the arrangement does some serious justice to the flow.

You’ll hopefully get to hear this all over the Rock, Hauraki, RadioActive, 99bFM and all the other student and regional stations. I see no reason why the likes of More FM and ZM couldn’t play this too, by the way. This is the kind of sound that does well over in Northern Europe too, and also the Americas and Philippines, Japan, Korea.

Go on, give this a listen when it comes out on my homeland’s national day, Friday 1st March. St. David’s Day. You will absolutely be air drumming and nodding in approval at that fantastic chorus. Remember – Investigator: Madness. It’s about the near future, and the sense of out with the old. I’m comfortable with that, as I’m not old: I’ve just had more birthdays than most other kids.

HEY! I just finished the post draft edit and that chorus is still rockin’ my noggin! WOHOO!