Album Review - Singing For Company - Tiberius

Album Review - Singing For Company - Tiberius

I’ve always been a fan of genre-bending, growing up with iconic names such as the Prodigy, Radiohead and Pendulum blasting through my shitty iPod Speakers as a child. Therefore, I was relieved to give Tiberius a listen, who seem to take influence from all corners of rock, pop punk, emo and metal. Their second album, Singing for Company, debuted on the 21st March featuring eight tracks — all with a distinct identity and sound. Starting their musical journey a decade ago, the band has amassed a loyal fan base, and the first single, “Tip Of The Spear”, has already garnered more than 60,000 listens on Spotify to date.

Singing for Company is a short but sweet album with many enjoyable aspects, and its strong progression stood out to me. As a listener, you could sense the album’s journey through the genre subtypes, with the first few tracks acting as a warm-up for some of the heavier tracks near the latter half. Within the first 25 seconds of the album, my first thought was “wow, this sound quite a lot like if Tenacious D and Fall Out Boy had a baby”, which then transcended to “the lead vocalist’s voice is remarkably like David Draiman from Disturbed” and “ooh, nice guitar.”

Tiberius begins the album with New Revelation, a track with a naughty lil breakdown towards the end. By building up to a satisfying apex, the band are sure to keep people excited, and I’m looking forward to witnessing this one live. I think the instrumentals are particularly standout in this song, as they drive the strong energy of the track and bring it to life. Lead singer Grant Barclay also shows off his pipes during the aforementioned breakdown, which sound pretty stellar — the guy must have a pretty good lung capacity! As a certified slut for a breakdown, I enjoyed this one, and many of the others throughout this album.

Tip of the Spear, which is the third in this lineup, starts off with an awesome driving guitar arpeggio, followed by a nice riff that gets your head bobbing. My goblin brain always craves fast-paced tracks, and this one could definitely get a crowd moshing, as it’s high energy and good fun. The chorus once again reminded me of Fall Out Boy in the Save Rock and Roll era, which hit a nostalgic note for me as I used to be obsessed with them back in my sad teenager who hates school and wears rainbow over the knee socks phase.

Although I think the first half of the album has merit, I think it really comes into its own in the second half, with tracks like Singing for Company and The Iliad Flow tickling my pickle for their own distinctive reasons. The former is a proper ear worm, and probably the most catchy track in the lineup — which is punctuated by yet another dirty guitar riff that’ll have a listener saying “pee-yew, what’s that stench.” The latter, which immediately jumps into a cracked instrumental, further proves that Tiberius can throw it down in the studio. I can also relate to the phone-hating lyrics as somebody who has to actively restrain myself from throwing my phone in every public bin. I appreciate the levels these songs transition through, so it’s not just 100% the whole time, leaving you excited for the next segment and making the instrumental-heavy sections that much more impactful.

I’d also like to give a shout out to the random ass bagpipe solo at the start of the final track, Touch the Past. Man there’s something so amazing about a bagpipe segment in a metal track; it’s an underrated instrument for sure. Bleed from Within might have done it first, but this still goes hard. This track has female vocals in it too, which is a refreshing change for the album’s conclusion; we all love a High School Musical-core duet!(though Troy Bolton doesn’t strike me as a metalhead).

In conclusion, Tiberius has done some good work with this album, and listening to it has got me excited to see them live in April. With Singing for Company, the band are keen to “share the evolution of their sound, which comes with the same snarky lyrical content and genre-bending motifs fans come to expect.”