Janus Stark – Face Your Biggest Fear

This is Janus Stark’s 5th full length release, although the last two Rewind to A and Chez Wrong were somewhat of a clear out of old songs that needed to be aired, songs that had either featured on their first album Great Adventure Cigar but aired as originally imagined or songs that had been written and simply deserved to be out into the world.

Having fully reviewed their last totally brand new masterpiece Angels In The Flames and feeling it would have been a brave soul to say or even imagine Gizz Butt and his band could even come close to this, it comes as a huge surprise (but then why should we be surprised, when Gizz the maestro gets to work) that the latest album released via Time & Matter Records Face Your Biggest Fear actually blows everything else out of the water, with the power of a nuclear warhead I’d like to add.

Being that Gizz himself has been through the wringer in the past few years, with the very sad and untimely death of both much loved parents, and to add to this Covid creating hell all around him, it would be no wonder if the writing and playing was slung to the back of the room for a while, but no! Gizz I’m pretty sure would agree, that playing and writing music is his life, so what do you do when times are hard and fighting off the sadness needs to happen?, you write and play of course. 

What would be the most fitting way of kicking off this album then, if not with ‘Father Time’ a tale of family, a tribute and a remembrance of the parents who he adored.  A song that sets the tone for this album, full of melody yet still heavily on the rock side of life, a pleasurable listening experience within what could have been such a difficult song to write I’d imagine.

The one this your always going to get on a Janus Stark album, is stories of life and how it throws punches at you, how ‘Rolling With The Punches’ is sometimes the only way to deal with what comes your way, Covid levelled up the country in a much more tangible way than Boris Johnson ever could have, this song slings itself right at you with some pure rock riffs, but then wait a minute ‘I Don’t Want Your Sympathy’ drops some of those riffs and licks that could have fell straight off the back of an AC/DC tour bus, all wrapped around a fuck you to the politicians who gave plenty of “we sympathise” but actually did nothing to help the music industry in it time of need.

Next up is my wholeheartedly favourite song on the album (which is a very difficult thing to pick out), for one very good reason, well several, but one stands out in particular, the line “not below you, not above you” part of phrase apparently coined by one Mathew Lancaster and for myself, it could stand so well for the punk ethos, or any other selfless genre or way of life, and its a kick ass musically brilliant song too, oh just remembered its also call ‘Eddie ’n’ Larkin’.

As you may by now have come to realise, this album has a life that lived within Gizz Butts head and is now out here for us all to listen to and enjoy, its full of Covid lockdown stories, things that have effected his and our lives in so many ways over the past few years, that in it self gives this whole album an affinity with the listener.  A song that stands in my life so well is ‘One More Ghost’ having the Linkin Park lyric “If one more light goes out, in the sky of a million stars, who cares? Well I do” tattooed on my side is a reminder that every life is worth remembering and caring about, is hit home in a very slightly different lyric, but the sentiment is the same, all wrapped up in a musical wonderment of heart felt riffs and melodies.  A few songs along and we head into another dark lyric, a reminder that life deals some hard blows that need to be dealt with alone in that deep dark empty place, the ‘Miriana Trench’ being it, a place to go to, to be then able to fight your way back up from, that’s where the musical side to this song comes into its own, a full on fest of upbeat life affirming guitar led wonderfulness.

Throughout this album your 100% reminded that your not alone, even though the songs have been written at a time of isolation for most, its totally astute of Gizz to take this opportunity to show us all that we are all one race and we all feel and breath the same air, emotions are there to be shared and lived.  

Musically this is an album of throwing everything out there, heavy at times but never letting go of reality, melodic as hell, rock fuckingtastic, with moments that just leave you sitting staring into space wondering how the fuck even!, musical genius is not too strong a word by the way.

And to leave us at the end with the line “Count your age not by years, not tears, but friends and smiles”, If I was one heartbeat behind this man I’d be a life millionaire.

See you all at the front at Rebellion Festival

Go get this album when it lands on 22nd July, go pre-order it now! 

It will be available in all these wonderful formats.

VINYL: Coloured vinyl with a double-sided full colour lyric insert. 

CD: Gatefold sleeve with a 24-page full colour lyric booklet.

DIGITAL: The album will also be available to download via Bandcamp.