Nine Black Alps

ALT.ROCK

When this Manchester foursome released their debut album two years ago, they sounded a great deal like Nirvana. Now they’re back it’s disappointing to hear just how little they have actually progressed. On the plus side Love/Hate boasts a fair amount of infectious tunes fuelled by howling guitars, thundering drums, squealing solos and Sam Forrest’s famously gruff vocals, but it all sounds too clean, clinical and overproduced to make for anything special. With bands like Gallows and Enter Shikari around, British rock is currently going through something of a renaissance, and this kind of pedestrian output only serves to give the genre a bad name.