Tape Shapes Newest Record 'Overload' Is Making The Kind Of Noise That Just Can't Be Ignored

Man, this was such an awesome find to come across. I’m always in the mood for some good Grunge/Blues Rock, which is a breed of music that I find it becoming harder and harder to find in the current musical climate. It’s always an added bonus to hear a female fronted band in this genre as well, as there’s just something really fitting about that aspect when it comes to this style of Rock n Roll. The last couple records like this that I got excited for wound up disappointing me quite a bit, with the latest from Dorothy and L7 coming to mind. This, however, puts both those records to shame with a balls to the wall, high intensity sound that never left me bored for even a second. For a band as under the radar as this one, it’s super refreshing to hear them putting so many bigger names to shame.

While this record bears many striking resemblances to plenty of other Blues Rock and Grunge acts out there, I can’t quite pin it down into just one box or comparison. It’s a record that feels extremely familiar, yet manages to inexplicably not sound exactly like anything I’ve heard before. It’s way too bluesy to get lumped in with things like Halestorm, way too grungy to be lumped in with any typical Blues Rock act, and on top of that has a certain approach to pumping out melodies that sounds like nothing else in the genre. There are plenty of riffs and vocal melodies here that caught my ear as something that I’ve just never heard in the context of this style of music before. Moments like the refrain in Flesh and Bones and a handful of the guitar riffs scattered about gave me a cryptic, Phrygian vibe that stood out as some of the most memorable ideas I’ve heard in a record like this in ages. This record really is a nonstop adrenaline-fueled romp full of high intensity, extremely well written moments that honestly deserve far, far more attention than they’ve gotten. This is the kind of music that makes a band blow up.

Despite many of these songs clocking in at around the 5-6 minute mark, I never once felt like any of them overstayed their welcome or left me bored for even a second. This album does such a great job at maintaining a consistent and familiar sound whilst always freshening things up just enough to keep you on your toes. The mood will switch from in your face to brooding and collected, just to ramp things back up into a fun and excitable vibe and circle right back around on a dime. They gracefully transform these songs through notable evolutions and shifts on their core ideas in the blink of an eye whilst always doing so in a way that feels smooth and natural. I feel like so many albums in this style are often so hamfisted and short-winded in ways that fail to capture their songs’ true potential and instead just resort to repetitious and predictable songwriting tropes. This record on the other hand doesn’t fall into that hole even once. Every track on here is fully realized and elevated to as high of a level as it can possibly be.

The performances on here, from a purely musical perspective, are what really ties the entire package together. You can write a million magnificent songs, but if you can’t play them well then there isn’t much of a point in the first place. Thankfully, these guys can definitely play. Guitarist Dominik Grußendorf has so many vibrant riffs and filthy, distortion soaked chord voicings on this album that I can barely even keep track of my favorites. Moments like the muddy and chaotic riffing on the title track showcase exactly what’s so great about his playing on this thing. He dedicates all of his playing feel into delivering a filthy, bone-shaking performance that’s messy in all the right ways. Seriously if you’re a guitarist I promise you will get plenty of entertainment out of this thing just from taking in the guitar tones and licks themselves. While the guitars are fantastic, it’s definitely singer Laura Bonet’s performance that takes the cake here. It’s incredibly rare that I’ll swear in a review, but she seriously kicks ass. I genuinely think she’s got the most grit, punch and roar out of any Rock frontwoman I can think off of the top of my head. Some of her bellowing growls, intricate melismas and gritty hooks left me doing double takes while listening so frequently that being surprised by her performance became the norm by the first 10 minutes of listening. The rhythm section is definitely worth a nod as well, as the meaty and thick bass tone delivered by Elena Hauten and the drumming from Simone Pagliarini is definitely a piece of the puzzle when it comes to how intense this thing is. They contribute so much to the wall of sound throughout the record and really give it all that extra punch it needs.

While this is the first thing I’ve heard from these guys, I did go back and check out a couple tracks here and there from their previous projects. All that left me thinking was that these guys have seriously made a huge jump in quality throughout the last three years. I definitely didn’t dislike what I heard on their last album Divine, but rather it showed me that these guys are very capable of improving on themselves as musicians. They definitely had some traces of what made the new release so great in their older stuff, but I found a lot of it kind of fell into more predictable tropes I’d expect from any run of the mill Hard Rock band. This time around, they’ve crafted such a unique and distinguishable sound that that critique isn’t even slightly applicable. The potential for what this band could do in the future is definitely worth keeping your eyes on, as the growth between these two albums is pretty significant. With this newest record, they’ve definitely struck the kind of gold that could easily carry them far in the music industry if they can manage to get that initial boost. I’m really hoping that this is just the beginning for them as a band, as when Coronavirus dies down I could totally see this material stealing the main stage at any Hard Rock festival. If the musical growth between their previous material and what we got this time around is any indication, Tape Shapes is a band that you should definitely keep your eye on.

I’ve got to say I’m pretty surprised at just how incredible this album wound up being, as it definitely deserves much more attention than it’s gotten. I don’t often review small, independent records as I always want to hold everything I review up to the same standard - regardless of budget. That means that whenever I hear something small like this that I think I can fairly analyze and criticize to the same level as any huge release off of a major record label, that means they’re definitely doing something right. Tape Shapes is a fantastic example of this, delivering one of the most well put together and fully realized independent records I’ve stumbled across in a long time. If you’re even remotely into Blues Rock, or if you’re somebody like me that’s always looking for something with enough quality to remind me of the glory days of Grunge, this is an album you’ve got to check out. Tape Shapes are really showing their potential as one of the most talented young bands in the Blues Rock/Grunge world with Overload - a record so boisterous, intense and fun that it’ll be on my rotation for months. This is a filthy, wild and in-your-face record in all the right ways and I can’t recommend it enough. - 8.5/10 (Best Songs - Flesh and Bones, Big Cheese, Overload)