Livingston - Animal (2014)

The story of Livingston started in Pretoria, South Africa in 2000. It was guitar player Chris van Niekerk who started the band together with Beukes Willemse. The guys moved to London and completed the line-up. Livingston was born.

The band got first bigger attention in Germany with the song "Go'. This one was the official Olympia anthem for the German TV station ZDF during the wintergames in 2010.

Livingston released so far two full-length records and the third one is on its way. "Animal", that's name of this disc, will be available in the coming days and has twelve new tracks. The music of the quintet is a mix of rock, indie, U2, Coldplay and Mando Diao. This isn't the most heavy combination, but I must say that the tunes have their charm.

The band created songs that live from their melodies and hooklines. And those are really catching your attention.

It's a dramatic 2 minutes intro that kicks-off the album. What comes next is a seamless transition into the first song "When it goes away". It's a mighty rock song with a foundation build on a dense keyboard sound combined with a pounding bass.

The first three songs are chosen very well since they reflect the album in a good way. Mid tempo rock songs with a big arcs of melodies incl. intensive usage of keyboards. This adds a certain pop appeal to the sound, but in general the tunes are rocking enough. It never gets too chessy.

That the band has their roots in Africa becomes obvious by listen to "Time bomb". The beat and the vocals show the origin very well. I good idea and a nice variation on the record.

But my highlights are still the more rocking tracks like "The hunter". It's one of the faster songs with a pumping beat and direct appraoch.

To conclude: Livingston is a band that might not hit the taste of each metal fan, but if you like the above mentioned bands you should give this album a chance.