Album Review: Alpha Male Tea Party – Health

Alpha Male Tea Party are a self confessed “fucking loud instrumental band” from Liverpool who have released their sophomore album, Health, today, the 23rd June 2017, via Big Scary Monsters Records. Their latest full length follows on from their 2014 debut album, Droids, and in the three years between their studio releases Alpha Male Tea Party have been steadily touring the UK and Europe, all the while steadily building an ever increasing following for the their unique sonic delivery.

Have You Ever Seen Milk? kicks things off with a surprisingly mellow start with complex structures and timing changes, but this really is the calm before Alpha Male Tea Party unleash a storm, and the storm duly arrives in the shape of the pulverising Ballerina. Health carries obvious influences from the likes of Everything Everything and Deftones, along with a distinct math rock influence, but with no vocals to interrupt, or be fitted into, the flow Alpha Male Tea Party can focus purely on the musical structure, and as complex as they can be, and it might sound weird for an instrumental math rock album, but this doesn’t come across as the self indulgent exercise that you would expect.

The lack of vocals will be offputting for some, but as they are an instrumental band this can’t really be used a criticism, although for me you do feel like there are stages when the vocals would naturally flow into a song, and their absence does leave you with the unsettling feeling that something is missing, but that’s more due to what I’m used to rather than any fault on the part of Alpha Male Tea Party. This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea by the very nature of the album, but if you want a unique approach to math rock that is delivered with the heaviness and attitude of alt rock then Alpha Male Tea Party do bring something unique to the genre.

Health can be ordered via Big Scary Monsters Records here