VELVET THUNDER

The rather wonderfully named Last Fight To Pluto is a female fronted rock/prog band from South Wales with Random Karma, Fate And Destiny being the band’s third album to date.

The group was put together by singer and guitarist Alice Freya with drummer Darren ‘Daz’ Joseph who progressive rock fans of old will remember from the great Welsh band Ezra. It seems that personnel is something of a floating matter in the band with Freya and Joseph being the ever-presents with a pool of musicians being used to fill out the sound with guitarists Ryan Barnard, George Jones and Jack Parry and bassist Ed Rees completing the team for this release although there does seem to be a different line-up for the band now. Freya has a quite distinctive vocal style and comes across as something of a mixture of Cerys Matthews, Geddy Lee and Noosha Fox (S-S-S-Single Bed anyone?) which is interesting and unique enough to make you sit up and take notice but it can take a little while for you to get used to her delivery.

In many respects the band has a sound of Rush and fellow Welsh prog rock outfit Karnataka being very melodic and rather intricate with some wonderfully restrained guitar work but when the guys open up then stand by for a whirlwind of epic proportions. However, this is Alice Freya’s band and she totally controls the pace and direction making this a most pleasing prog rock album and the band is slowly but steadily building up a very healthy reputation as a live outfit and a rock name to watch out for.