The Virginmarys - ‘Northern Sun Sessions’ is a full on rock and roll record!

The Virginmarys are set to release their first album since 2016 next month called ‘Northern Sun Sessions’, the band originate from Macclesfield, England where they recorded a limited series of EPs, before then releasing their debut album ‘Kings of Conflict’ in 2013, which reached No.3 on the Billboard ‘New Artist, Alternative’ chart and also No.8 on Billboard’s ‘Heatseekers’ chart.

Since then, the Virginmarys have been dubbed the buzz band by SXSW, receiving humongous support from US rock and alternative radio stations and acclaim from Rolling Stone, USA Today, Alternative Press and many more. The band then followed up on this with their second album, Divides, which was released in 2016. This record was hailed by Spotify, Apple Music, Yahoo! And many more… Yet now they’re back with their third full-length release, ‘Northern Sun Sessions’.

The album opens with ‘Look Out For My Brother’, first premiered live in November 2017, and begins with a large blast of sound before settling to an appealing riff and catchy ‘Oh Oh Oh’s' that are easily going to play a big part of the live show’s when the band embark on their upcoming tour. ‘Look Out For My Brother’ is brutally honest within its lyrics, with lead singer Ally Dickaty explaining his frustrations through ‘I smoked too much it dried my eyes out, I drank too much that I grew fins’.

This then leads into the second track ‘SOS4UNI’ (SOS for you and I), which shares the same frantic musical concepts, yet is filled with incendiary rage, creating a track which is extremely energetic yet heartfelt, further placing emphasis upon the emotional morality within The Virginmarys music.

“I’m more excited about this record than any others we’ve done. We’ve created a beast that sounds massive. There’s a lot of freedom in this record, I’ve felt liberated and closer to the spark that had me writing in the first place. We’ve been working so close with these songs from start to finish and it’s felt right pouring ourselves into them. It’s a very special record that feels closest to the energy of our live performance than any before” - Dickaty explains

Halfway through the album sits ‘Blind Leads The Blind’, a true heavy rock song. The track starts with mellow, reflective vocals and light guitar before the explosive accompaniments return. ‘Blind Leads The Blind’ is filled with rare passion, ‘it’s an endless march where the blind lead the blind in the dark’ exemplifies the darkness throughout, yet builds up to possibly suggest that there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. This then slams into the franticness of ‘Get Me Back Home’ which provides a juxtaposition of ‘happy’ tones mixed with emotional despair.

Following this is the, almost, title track ‘Northern Sun’ and is a song that comes from the heart. Dickaty gives, as always, his all on ‘Northern Sun’ and this track has a whole lot of feeling within it. “I’ll love you right or wrong” is a stand out lyric on this stand out track.

‘Flags’ is the 9th track upon this album and is driven with much passion. The Virginmarys always put in 100% for each song, and this is no exception. ‘Flags’ features a striking opening line, “six years sober, and I’m still hungover’ with heaps of sincerity.

‘Northern Sun Sessions’ is proof that The Virginmarys are a force to be reckoned with, this album is extremely powerful, more so than their previous material. The determination and emotion within the vocals alone is next level, but the fact that The Virginmarys are a two piece, even more so and ‘Northern Sun Sessions’ is, in fact, a reflection of that.