The Inklings – The Tunnel At The End Of The Light

The Inklings are a band that have grown and grown over the past few years, born out of a necessity to realise their need to grown and keep moving forward, the core of the band came from the ashes of Zeitgeist 77, not through a split, rather just a progression, with Darren Thomas (vocal/guitar), Mick McGee (bass) and James Thomas (drum/keyboard), this is a band sitting at a point in time that could see them become get the accolades they deserve.

The Tunnel At The End Of The Light comes in as their fifth studio album in around two years, a feat in itself.  But this is by far their most accomplished and polished album to date, the natural growth in confidence as a band can be heard throughout.  Instead of entering a dark tunnel, this album actually draws you out into the light, songs that draw on influences from so many eras, you can 100% feel The Stranglers vibes going on, but then there are elements of The Doors and The Clash that are never too far away.

It’s an album that most of all entertains, it drifts to and fro between dark punk with hints of rock metal undertones in songs like ‘The House of Our Fathers’ that speaks of the things like God abandonment and shallow graves, then there is ‘Pound Shop Jesus’ (there is a theme here) which sits in the 70’s punk area with hints of 60’s Trojan yet still has that dark pounding drum and bass line dragging it out of  its shell.  Then we get some rather psychedelic moments that feel hidden like little gems scattered around in various songs, ‘Here To Stay’ being an example, 80’s retro with 60’s sensibility maybe.

If we had to put this album in a box, it would have to be a very very big box with leaking sides, the musical journey here is not one of stable set boundaries, it moves around like a ‘Snake’ (yep a song on the album), meandering through the varying genres and biting on anything that seems juicy enough to be part of the serpent that is this musical collective.

A  special mention has to go out to one of the stand out tracks and the last song ‘Stop’ which features a fitting drum tattoo played by long time friend of the band Tracey Sneddon who very sadly lost her very long fight with cancer before recently.  

If your a fan of bands that just don’t fit into those “genre boxes” The Inklings best album so far just has to be for you.

Out on the 22nd October, head on over to The Inklings Facebook for all the info.

You’ll also find more music on Spotify