August 19, 2003 - The Trews and House Of Ill Fame

A week after my last release a new band joins my library when The Trews released their debut album "House Of Ill Fame" on August 19, 2003.  But who are The Trews? They are a four-piece rock band from Antigonish, Nova Scotia consisting of frontman Colin MacDonald (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards), his brother John-Angus MacDonald (lead guitar), Jack Syperek (bass) and Sean Dalton (drums). I'm not a big Trews fan but they did have a couple succesful radio hits off this album and I have both of them, starting with "Not Ready To Go". It's got a pretty catchy drum beat by Dalton and is driven by a pretty catchy guitar riff by MacDonald as well. It's easy to tap your toe along to this solid and accessible rock riff and Colin's voice sounds like a pretty solid made-for-radio rock voice as he sings a nice verse overtop. The chorus has a super catchy guitar riff and it's just them shouting the name of the song over and over, which definitely drags as the song goes on, but it's undeniably easy to remember and sing along with. After another round Colin sings a solid new part before they slam nicely back into the main riff to predictably finish things off. The other single off this album is "Tired Of Waiting" and after a quiet and cool intro they settle into a slow but solidly epic main riff and Colin holds some nice longer notes in the verse that matches the mood perfectly. Like the other single the chorus is catchy but also extremely repetitive and thankfully Colin slices things up a bit with some extra inflection at the end. There's a "guitar solo" after the next round, but it's super simple and could barely be called that. Colin yells a nice new part after the solo, then they predictably jam out the finish. Two solid singles, but definitely not my usual cup of tea. 

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