The discourse around faltering music venues is dreary. Until, of course, you get back out there into the sweaty throng. No matter how many shows I’ve had the pleasure of racking up (now suitably resigned to bar-side with creaking bones), the live experience never falters, and it takes me back to the FKA HMV Forum nearly 20 years ago seeing my first in-person band of all time: The Ghost Of A Thousand.
“Get to a show!” is the takeaway from that spiel, as The Ghost Of A Thousand were the first thing that came to my head hearing Hang the choir; a bombastic single from punk ‘n’ roll returners John Coffey. They take plenty of inspiration from that much-missed band having recorded with their guitarist Jag Jago, as well as the also-much-missed Every Time I Die; having recorded an EP with fellow collaborator Kurt Ballou; and the thirdly-much-missed The Chariot, having made Bright Companions with their raw-favouring engineer Matt Goldman (after Josh Scogin had no time to produce it).
Those are wicked favourites to have, and John Coffey’s re-emergence comes at a time when their closest comparison bands are clearly in short supply. And given our commingled interests, I am baffled I have not delved further into the Utrecht band much before, only being reminded of this in the press materials. And, honestly, who cares about the music when you’re known for that? That’s in jest; the music really is rather good here, albeit losing a smidge of biting raucousness that the aforementioned acts, their current contemporaries, and even their former selves, had.
That would not be the immediate takeaway once you get the record spinning. Hang the choir wastes no time bruising you with riffs, and vocals traded between David Achter de Molen, Alfred and Richard van Luttikhuizen, and Christoffer van Teijlingen, which builds off of the band’s tradition of shining a light on real-life struggle; here, someone bullied due to their mastectomy scars. It’s a rush lyrically and instrumentally, while Time is up now is breathless, despite coaxing you to sing along with its catchy hooks.
When the van Luttikhuizens and van Teijlingen hammer the riffs home like this, there’s great recall to their Romans days—the best examples being the hammer-on skips on All bark, no bite and the discordant leads of Push Push Push. Both have clearly learned from the Andy Williams and Jordan Buckley school of riffs—particularly from The Big Dirty days—but they achieve the same effect of making you burst a vein in your head.
If there’s some deviation we did not see much of from those guys, John Coffey fit in an alarm bell and a child’s choir on Do not teach. But its clunky start never irons itself out, and it is a bit of a crumbling house. Likewise, the motivational sentiment of Call of the bear is obvious (and it being a mathcore ode to a great animal, because why the hell not?) just with plenty of cheese grated on top. Where the balladic turn of Not Alone does come about, it does well to turn the dial down and conveys its story of a close friend’s mental health struggles.
There’s even harmonies all over this thing, injecting more heartland rock into their boulder-downhill style they had down in the early ‘10s (especially on It’s you). It does grant a triumphant fist-pump feel to proceedings, especially in the context of a band only a couple of years back from a hiatus. Yet as far as John Coffey being placed back into a scene that’s missing, it may not have enough gas and vigour to reinvent it for the next generation. To see them back at least shows that a brilliant hardcore style still exists, both a reward for its original fans and John Coffey sticking to their stoic mantra.
For fans of: The Ghost Of A Thousand, Kvelertak, 68
‘Not Alone’ by John Coffey is released on 9th October on Long Branch Records.
Words by Elliot Burr
