The Turn; Debut Album from Salisbury’s 5 Nights at Adyans

Formed just two years ago at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury, award-winning four-piece youth band, 5 Nights at Adyans, look set to release their highly-anticipated debut album, The Turn for the 30th anniversary of the prominent community youth music initiative, Bass Connection, at Salisbury Arts Centre on Saturday 5th September…..

I confess I was uneasy about pressing play on the link they sent. In a chat, a little birdy compared them to Devizes’ export Nothing Rhymes with Orange, likely because said birdy knows how much I like them. While now, NRWO are producing concentrated material merging boundaries, they cut their teeth here with quick and catchy indie-punk-pop. I therefore, assumed this would be along similar lines.

The link sent was 5 Nights at Adyans’ initial takes of songs to appear on the album, in an unedited, raw format. While sometimes raw can work, with thrashy punky sounds it usually doesn’t do the band justice compared to the final masters. However, it’s far from “thrashy,” certainly not “trashy,” and I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised as I was.

Five tunes, conveniently one for each night at Adyans; I love them all! But the unexpected twist is this; with an incredibly expressive vocal range to make Jim Morrison blush, there’s a majority of elements more akin to classic prog rock riffs than than the punk annihilation I was expecting because of the wonky verbal comparison I received!

Throughout the tracks they sent, there’s swirly psychedelic elements of a sixties acid band, crashing bridges of The Nice, the blues rock of Cream, intense ballad moments and the unstoppable moody layer-building of Led Zeppelin, rather than anything to come out of Busted or Blink 182. The band recently posted a pastiche of the Oasis album cover for Morning Glory to their Facebook page, with themselves posing as Liam and Noel do on it. Here they joked, asking if their fans thought it would make a good cover design; I’d suggest it gives the wrong impression, as I’d not compare this to ephemeral Britpop either. 

Darling You Got Me came across as a nicely flowing blues-rock introduction, with a hot step to it, and it was all go from the off. But it was the following, Final Location which especially captured my ear, as the tempo slowed to ballad; if there’s punk there it’s subtle at best, matured. It’s gorgeously expressive and emotive, but Final Location isn’t an exception; it becomes the rule. 

Tear it Apart also goes there, albeit upbeat, like Rush. Title track Turn brings the dramatic to an apex. The emotional outpour is in full splendour, would appease anyone coming from an aged rock spectrum, and they’d likely assume 5 Nights at Adyans have been at it since 1976! With this thought in mind, this band could save your multi-generational festival!

At times it’s also the mood-shifting sentiment more akin to soft metal rather than grunge. I mean this as the highest compliment, because moodswing is one thing metal could do exceptionally, when it came to aiming into an eighties pop chart. Think how Guns & Roses timelessly transcend the changing trends with their power ballads, like The Doors did decades earlier, whereas the others “halfway there” and “final countdowning” failed the test of time with their commercially viable pop-rock, now only drunken party night nostalgia can save.

I hope you get what I mean?! Because you can go back to a song like Break on Through to the Other Side; it’s enduring. You can unearth Pink Floyd and listen to them again, find new solace with The Who, but often modern sounds fail to stand that test of time. If the finale of The Turn, Knots has an indie, even grunge twinkle, I’d still liken it more to something classic rock.

There’s no three-minute hero here. All the songs are thoughtfully written and composed, are full-bodied and complete odysseys, but being a debut, I predict, might not necessarily age like fine wine, because here’s a progressive band screaming with potential to produce something far greater than the sum of these current parts, cool though they are. In years to come they should reflect back proudly on this beginning, because it’s exceptionally impressive.

Surprised and impressed, with high hopes, Salisbury-based 5 Nights at Adyans certainly took me on a journey. It never fails to amaze how attuned youth can be, from a sixth form band to achieving remarkable regional recognition recently, vocalist Owen Morgan, guitarist Toby Allen, bassist Jasper Hill and drummer Thomas Clarke might spend 5 Nights at Adyans, but going on this debut, should be spending forthcoming decades concreted into rock history.

Find them on Facebook and Instagram, and await for this debut with as much patience as you can bare!

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