NEW NOISE
GIANT WALKER
UK prog metal’s next big thing prove that some good stuff did manage to come out of the pandemic
WORDS: DANNII LEIVERS
“EVERYONE IS SO quick to make everything black and white, but I think grey is always more interesting,” says Giant Walker vocalist and lyricist Steff Fish, when asked to explain her band’s nuanced approach to songwriting.
Her bandmate, guitarist Jamie Southern, picks up the thread. “The last thing the world needs is another love song. I don’t think any of us like anything that’s kind of like… ‘Bleugh… this is how I feel, eat it.’”
Listen to Giant Walker’s debut album, All In Good Time, and that aversion to anything too straightforward makes perfect sense. The Geordies’ take on prog metal ebbs and flows. Songs start out on solid ground before reaching their apex in a different dimension and surprisingly agile grooves turn on a hairpin at a moment’s notice, buoyed by unpredictable time signatures. By the time latest single Katoomba reaches its first chorus, the song has shifted on its axis three times, anchored by Steff’s clarion-clear, cathartic vocal melodies. Citing influences as wide-ranging as Deftones, Karnivool, Soundgarden and Radiohead, it’s a sound that’s tricky to pin down.