INGLORIOUS (Live)

at The Riverside, Newcastle, U.K., October 5, 2021

Signing to mega label Universal has clearly not phased London based Mercutio as a confident, assured display as openers for Inglorious showed a band going places. Frontman Ross Willian Wild’s brash, flamboyant performance was captivating and backed with songs like the hard driving “Chaos Is King” and the slowburning “Alex” mark Mercutio down as ones to watch.

Inglorious, may still seem a “new” band in the eyes of many but almost 7 years and five albums in, their pedigree is hard to deny.

Built around the astonishing vocals of Nathan James, whose powerful voice references the greats of the 70s combined with the guitar histrionics of wonder kid Danny Dela Cruz, Inglorious have what it takes to fly the flag for Classic Hard Rock.

Opening with two new songs “She Won’t Let You Go” and “Messiah” is a bold move but one that ultimately works as Inglorious covered all of the bases with “Breakaway” from their self-titled debut album following hot on their heels.

With a new covers album out a few weeks ago celebrating the heroines of Rock, Inglorious delivered up tasty takes on Heart’s “Barracuda”, “Uninvited” by Alanis Morissette and Miley Cyrus classic “Midnight Sky” which showed a band not afraid to take risks.

With a growing catalogue of classics in their own right, someone one day will undoubtedly cover the likes of “Holy Water” and “Until I Die” which simply shuddered with emotion as James used his impressive voice to full effect.

A neat acoustic interlude featuring “Wake”, ”Glory Days” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” with drummer Phil Beaver adding some acoustic guitar alongside Dela Cruz slowed things down a little before normal service was resumed with “Medusa”.

Every singer needs a guitarist to spark off whether it’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page or Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, that connection is the lifeblood of Rock ‘n Roll. Nathan James has Danny Dela Cruz who simply smoked and pulled every Rock star pose in the book. This guy is only 22 years old and is destined for great things.

With two albums out in 2021 and now back out on the road after almost 2 years, Inglorious can continue their inevitable climb to the top of the Rock ‘n’ Roll tree.

Review and Photos By Mick Burgess

Author

Mick Burgess

Mick is a reviewer and photographer here at Metal Express Radio, based in the North-East of England. He first fell in love with music after hearing Jeff Wayne's spectacular The War of the Worlds in the cold winter of 1978. Then in the summer of '79 he discovered a copy of Kiss Alive II amongst his sister’s record collection, which literally blew him away! He then quickly found Van Halen I and Rainbow's Down To Earth, and he was well on the way to being rescued from Top 40 radio hell! Over the ensuing years, he's enjoyed the Classic Rock music of Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, and Deep Purple; the AOR of Journey and Foreigner; the Pomp of Styx and Kansas; the Progressive Metal of Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, and Symphony X; the Goth Metal of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Epica, and a whole host of other great bands that are too numerous to mention. When he's not listening to music, he watches Sunderland lose more football (soccer) matches than they win, and occasionally, if he has to, he goes to work as a property lawyer.
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