Hello Jackie | ‘Unspeakable Territories’

I can’t be the only one who’s seen the name Hello Jackie on various flyers and thought a cocky “WTF”.

Wherever the name comes from, it’s terrible. It does their music far too much of a disservice.

This Polish/Irish band plough a bizzarre musical furrow, at times like Korn and Kittie, at others like Ebony Lake, Atrox and Dominion. Reports from people who’ve seen their live show confirm that it can be a little… jarring.

Yet if you listen hard to what they’re doing on their better tracks, it’s clear that this is a fairly involved and clever band.

The demo opens with ‘Being’, which sounds like a piano falling down the stairs. It’s not great.

‘Sick’ however is in an entirely different league. This track could be a real winner for them: it’s got hooks all over the place, a great chorus and tons of energy. OK, so bits of it sound like Nu-metal, but it also has a nice spooky background vibe and some really pulsing bass.

On top of that, it gets better and better as the track goes along. Kids up and down the country would go bonkers for this given the chance. Vocalist Ashka really belts it out, and full credit to her for exploring every range between squeal, bellow, roar and well controlled alto.

‘Riot’ isn’t half bad either. It’s about the heaviest on here, reminding of ‘Roots’ era Sepultura, but with very pleasant nods to Faith No More’s ‘Angel Dust’ in the keyboard department too. It’s pretty bloody good.

They’re a bit of an awkward lot, really – their crap name and some overly “inventive” moments do them few favours. Yet ‘Sick’ and ‘Riot’ are perfect contenders for true mainsream appeal, in the best possible way.

If they can crack out an album’s worth of those, they’d really be going somewhere. Probably not for the underground die hards, but then again, it really isnt that different from the likes of Liquid Graveyard.

Give them a chance. Oddly, I find myself coming back to it again and again – which is rare for many an Irish demo.

- Earl Grey ::: 02/07/12