The Answer - Episode 2 (2010 - 2023)

Rock & Metal’s Hidden Gems Podcast continues our spotlight on a true hidden gem rock band as we conclude our deep dive into The Answer.

In this episode, we pick up the story from 2010 to the present day, exploring how The Answer’s sound evolved across their later releases and how they continued to stay true to their bluesy, classic rock roots while adapting to a changing music landscape. We highlight standout tracks from this era and further emphasise why The Answer remain one of an underrated band in modern rock.

If you’re a fan of blues driven rock in the style of Led Zeppelin, Rival Sons and AC/DC then this is a band I think you're going to love.

For any requests for future episodes, please email: RandM.HiddenGems.Podcast@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Welcome back to Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems Podcast. I am your host, Daniel Stuckey, and this is episode two on our series on the band The Ancer. If you haven't heard episode one, highly recommend you do that first. There'll be a lot of context in episode one. This was recorded as one full podcast, and I've cut it in half and split it into two. So without further ado, let's get into episode two on our podcast series on the ants. And it was first released on label Spine Farm Records. Some of you listening may have heard of Spine Farm, or more than likely have heard of Spine Farm. They're originally a Finnish record label, but since 2002 they've been part of the Universal Music Group. And as of 2025, Spine Farm Group includes artists like the Scorpions.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

There's no one like this. I can wait for the night with you.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Spine Farm Records also has on the books Electric Wizard. There was also Billy Talent. So the Janssen now are signed on a record company, Spine Farm Records, who have a lot of other notable names. I mean, the names I mentioned there are the ones that they currently have signed. Back when they signed in 2011 for this album, Revival, they would have had a different set of names. I'm not saying they would have been as big, or maybe they would have been bigger. I don't have the records as of 2011 to be able to give you that information, but I can tell you as of 2025, they got a lot of big talent there. And I remember buying CDs when I was younger, well before 2011, with Spinefarm records on them. So they certainly were a big deal. And it's a big opportunity and an upgrade for The Answer. And this album, Revival, had some pretty good reviews, a little bit less mixed than the previous one, Everyday Demons. Classic Rock gave this one 7 out of 10. Rushonrock.com gave it 8 out of 10. So pretty good um reviews all around. And the first single came out in September of 2011, and the single was called Vida I Want You. That was the first single off Revival, Vita, I Want You. Decent song. It's got a catchy chorus. Uh easy to sing along to. I Want You. No, nice and easy to sing along to. Anyone can do that. And it is quite memorable, quite catchy. It's a bit poppy for my taste. But I can see why they chose it as a single, and I can see why people would like it. Two songs I want to pick up off this album. It is a good album. It gives the Aerosmith vibes, this album. So if you like Aerosmith, I think you're gonna like the answer's album Revival. Um, but let's get back to one of the songs I want to pick out. This one is called Use Me, I'm gonna go back to the house. That was Use Me, just a great rock track, really, and that's what the answer excels at. That's the kind of band I'm trying to sell to you today. It's just a really good rock band, bluesy rock band that makes kick-ass rock songs. They're not necessarily songs that are 10, 12 minutes that are complicated, or deep with their lyrical content, or guitar virtuoso with technical, brilliant, awkward time signatures. They're not really any of that. It's just good old classic loozy rock done well. Uh that's what the answer is. They're no thrills, great. Yes, they're good at their instrumentations, they have good solos and good riffs. I'm not taking away from their technical ability on their instrumentations. They've got an amazing singer in Cormac Neeson who really does give me kind of all those classic rock vibes, you know, the Steven Tyler's, the Robert Plant's, but also mixed with a little bit of Simply Red, you know, he's got a little bit of that in him as well, and a howling wolf influence is there for everyone to hear. Um, and and use me as an example of one of those really, really good, just in your face, three to four minute rock banger. The next one and the last one I'm gonna pick up off revival is a song that has a guest appearance from someone called Lynn Jackerman, who is a solo artist but also been a lead vocalist in a band called Saint Jude. They were a London-based band, but they also feature in the song, and this song is called Nowhere Freeway. You can hear Lynn Jackerman there singing uh alongside Cormac Neeson, especially in the chorus. Great, great chorus for me. The chorus again is where that song Nowhere Freeway really shines. It's catchy. And I don't know, it just hits me. I can't explain exactly why, but it just does. It just sounds good to my ears. And I really, really like that chorus. That song stands out for me as one of the answers to the best songs. It's got a bit of um, it is classic rock still, still in that realm, but it's less loosey, and it's got a bit of that early 2000s, not punk pop, but a kind of punk rock element to it, something more along the lines of AFI than Blink 182, but everything is still firmly based in that classic rock influence. The answer is part of their DNA. I think that a lot of the series uh that we cover here with Nightware Shine Maiden, uh, the Diablo Swing Orchestra, I all say they have a certain DNA that makes them unique and stand out. In the case of The Answer, maybe it doesn't make them unique, but it makes them the answer. It makes them who they are. You can identify exactly who the answer is. It doesn't try to be anything different. And it is the answer's DNA, that classic rock influence is there for all to hear. Now we're gonna move on to the next album. It's called New Horizon. Uh it came out in September of 2013. And one thing you'll notice is when I'm covering a band like Iron Maiden or Nightwish, they're huge. There's information all over the internet to do research with, to understand the story, how they formed, how they evolved, the different drama backstage or onstage, wherever it is. Um, it's easy to tell their story because the information is available. With a band like The Ancer, but remember they're a hidden gem band for a reason. They're not as popular as Iron Maiden or Night, which they'll tell you that themselves. They're not even in the same genre technically, but they're also not as big in their chosen genre. You know, there's ACTC, Terra Smith, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, there's loads of bands that are bigger in the answers genre, so it's easier to get information on them. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that it's hard to tell the answer story, it's quite private, it's not publicly available online, not even in like interviews. I've grasped what I can from interviews on YouTube the band members have done, but the story is still theirs to tell if they ever tell it. So, what we're kind of covering now in terms of information going forward is more about like information on the albums and the songs themselves. And this album, New Horizon, as I said, came out in 2013. But one information different about this album is that they switched from Spinefarm Records, where Revival came from, and they got into a new record label. This one is an Austrian label called Napalm Records, and they again have a bunch of uh other acts on their record label that are just as big and have some of their own notable uh names in the rock and metal world.

SPEAKER_06 13:24

So names like except the wall camelot.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Not off the bridge. A few of those bands are certainly in contention for their own series on this podcast, because there's a few bands there. I adore wasp. I had a big wasp phase when I was a teenager. Uh I bought they used to release the albums as double albums that re-released. So obviously they came out when they came out in the heyday when they were first released. But that was before my time when I was a teenager. That was in the 80s. I was more of a 90s kid, really growing up, although my heart may have been in the 80s. So when I was buying these on CD rather than the vinyl they originally came out on, they would release them as like double albums, like their first and second album would be a double CD, the third and fourth album would be a double CD, and it was really good value for money because the cost would be the same as the single album uh from any other band. So it made a cost sense for me to give WAP a try. I did, I love them. There's songs like Love Machine, I Wanna Be Somebody, the song that I played from the album The Last Command, Wild Child. Um I even had my fake wrestling name come from a Wasp song called Jack Action, which I later found out to be uh real professional wrestler that had some success in the field. Chris Jericho also did the same before he uh got famous and came up with the name Chris Jericho, which he took actually from a Halloween album. So still sticking with the rock and metal theme there. Yeah, but what a great great brand open to their own uh series. Same with the gazette, the same with Cradle of the Phil, the same with Miles Kennedy. I don't know how well known his solo stuff is, but that album The Year of the Tiger, I played the second track of that album for you there, with the song The Great Beyond. Uh, it's a really, really, really good album. Um majority of it is acoustic. There are some small minor exceptions there in some of the songs, but generally I think it's fair to say it's predominantly an acoustic album. And if you're into that kind of acoustic rock sound, or you're an Altar Bridge fan, or even a fan of Slash's solo project, which has Miles Kennedy singing in some of the albums, uh, you'll really, really enjoy a great, great album from Miles Kennedy. And I don't know if that album is a hidden gem in itself. Um I'd have to see the figures, see the numbers, see how popular Miles Kennedy as a solo artist is, but as a person uh and the band that he's in, Miles Kennedy certainly isn't an unknown entity. He's certainly very well known and respected as one of the finest rock singers currently going today, and he certainly is a very talented man. Now, we're not talking about these bands like Camelot or Miles Kennedy today. No, we're talking about the answer. So let's get back to their September 2013 album, New Horizon. It was produced by Toby Jepson, who is known as being the singer and guitarist from Little Angels and Wayward Sons. Let's have a little listen to them. Wayward Sons with the song Until the End there. So Toby Jepson, singer and guitarist for Wayward Sons and his previous band, Little Angels. Uh so he produced this album, New Horizon. The album artwork for a change, the answer went for someone who's uh reputable, respectable within the world of album art, and that was Storm Thorgerson, uh, who is actually one of the last pieces he ever worked on before he passed away in April of 2013, before the album's official release. Um he's worked closely in the past with bands like Pink Floyd, he also did album artwork for Bad Company, Beffie Clyro, Ringo, Audio Slave, Peter Gabriel, the Electric Light Orchestra, Yellow, 10CC, Muse, amongst so, so many others. So if you know anything about the people who produce the album artwork in the rock and metal world, you will know who Storm Ferguson is. If not, and you're interested, get yourself acquainted with him. He's got a lot of history behind him, and he did the album artwork for New Horizon for the answer. And a classic rock revisited gave uh this album a score of B, going with the old school grade system there. And the first single off the album was a song that came out in August of 2013, and it's called Spectacular.

SPEAKER_07 21:19

The Freedom Fight that can lead us far from home.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

The album New Horizon. Now you still got that uh bluesy almost question and answer format there from the answer, especially in the verse where Cormac Neeson sings his part and then the guitars come in with their kind of answer to Cormac Neeson's vocal part, which is typical blues, typical, typical blues. But for me on this song, spectacular, there's a kind of slightly different tone to it. It's still very much a bluesy classic rock sound, but it's a little bit of something lighter, maybe like a Stone Roses-esque coming into it. Which makes it a bit more, I guess, palatable for those who aren't in the rock world, but still well servicing the answers current audience. They're not uh selling out in any way, shape, or form. But it's just something a little different, a little bit more palatable for those who aren't already listeners, and maybe are on the lighter side of the music world than the darker, heavier side. So kind of catering to two audiences a little bit. Maybe that's me reading too much into it, likely is, but I do hear a slightly lighter tone in that song. Spectacular. Um, the next one I want to show you off this album, New Horizon, is called Leave with Nothing. So this song, Leave With Nothing, this track two on the album, and it's still in that DNA of the answer, that bluesy classic rock style. However, we're bringing the funk in on this song. And remember, before they became The Ancer, when they were just well, some of the band members uh were just jamming as like a cover band in their local area in Northern Ireland. Some of the songs of the artists they used to cover were red hot chili pepper songs. And I can hear the red hot chili pepper influence here, and I can hear it in the chorus as well, especially in early Chili Peppers. I'm talking blood sugar sex magic era as opposed to California Cation and beyond when they went a little bit different, but more in that kind of raw funk rock feel. I get that here in the song Leave with Nothing. Let's get back into it and listen to the chorus of Leave with Nothing and see if you can hear the same Chili Peppers influence I think I can hear. So that was track two of New Horizon Leave with Nothing. Uh I will say Cormac Neeson may take some flack for this, is a far more talented uh singer vocalist than Anthony Keidas from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Might take some flack from Chili Peppers fans there, but let's be realistic and honest here. Anthony Keidas started as a rapper rather than a singer in the Chili Peppers if you listen to their 80s era stuff. And yes, he brought in some of the more vocals, but oftentimes he's just scatting nonsense. And yeah, I think Core Magneeson is the more talented singer. However, I do think Anthony Keidas is more suited to the red hot chili peppers sound. I don't think you could put Core Magneeson in the Chili Peppers and improve them, you would worsen them. You get what I mean. Anyway, we're gonna go to one other song on the album, New Horizon, and move on to the next album called Raise a Little Hell. The next song I'm covering is track seven on the album, and it is a slower, uh, more softer toned song on the album. Let's consider it the ballad of the album, although it does progress into a little bit more upbeat as the song goes on. It's called Call Yourself a Friend.

SPEAKER_07 27:19

You call yourself friendly. You call yourself friend.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

So I dance. Call yourself a friend. Uh, a different vibe to the answer than what I've showed you mainly so far. They do tend to have uh one soft ballad type song on the album, at least sometimes two, but majority are usually upbeat rock bangers. Uh, this is the ballad off New Horizon, and I think it's a lovely, lovely song, and you can hear the influence from the likes of Led Zeppelin there. I mean, you get a little bit of stairway to heaven, but also the Beatles. I can hear some while my guitar gently weeps going on there. Maybe some pink Floyd as well, um, some comfortably numb. I can hear all that there, but then it's you just hear right at the end, yeah. The drums, the bass kicks in, the tempo kicks up a little bit, and we get a little bit of the answer coming in with it. Let's get back into it. Let's listen to a little bit more of the upbeat section uh for Call Yourself a Friend. In terms of the meaning of the song, I mean there's no definitive meaning out there. The band haven't really discussed it because, let's be honest, they're not a big enough band to be asked a question in an interview specifically about the song, and the fan base isn't quite there to fan debate over forums like Reddit. But listening to the lyrics, reading them, I mean you got things like Return to Dust, Unending Lust, and I'll be my demons, your whisper grows, but still you know that I cannot resist you. So there's some sort of love there. Uh, but then the next lines, and you call yourself a friend. So perhaps it's the long lost love. You know, you love this person, but they don't think of you in the same way. They only treat you as a friend. And I think everyone has been in the friend zone one way or the other, right? So I think this ultimately is a song about the friend zone. Um, the second verse starts with, and so I danced through broken glass, but still you can't remember how angels fall, how I was wrong to fly so close towards the sun. So that section, I mean, especially with the dancing through broken glass, you get the sense that this person is teaching on the edge of what is okay and what is not okay. I don't mean that in terms of breaking the law with sexual assault or anything like that. I mean that just in terms of pushing the boundaries of what's okay to be a friend, not a friend, maybe breaking that friendship up. Then there's a section straight afterwards, but still you can't remember how angels fall, how I was wrong to fly so close towards the sun. So projecting a little bit of blame on the other person there, in terms of you don't understand how I was wrong, why I was wrong, the things that happened to make me wrong, you can't remember them. You don't understand why I got so close to the edge, why I teeted on the okay and not okay. Uh it's almost like that other person's now shh uh putting blame on the person singing or the character that they're singing f from the point of view from, and you sort of get a little bit of resentment coming through here. And we just went into a section there. We listened to the well, we listened to all of it really, but the uh lyrics are so are you going away now to be a million-dollar charm? And I know I'm not the only one to be tangled in your arms, so this is now suggesting that maybe the other person's not really a true friend, definitely not a lover, it's more now someone who uses other people to get ahead in life. So in this case, it almost feels like maybe she's got ahead in life, she's got that fame, that fortune, the money, whatever it is. Uh, and now they've kind of turned their back on what they were calling a friend, and how he feels like he's not the only one to be um have their back turned on them, to be shunned by this person if she does it or he does it. Throughout to get ahead in life, and you call yourself a friend. Um, that's my analysis on the lyrics. Uh, I could be way wrong, I could be on the right lines roughly, but slightly out could be bang on. I'll let you judge for yourself. But I wanted to call it as well in that last little section uh that I played for you, the clip. And when it kicks back in, I really like the head banging, riffa comes in, the foot tapping, but then Cormac Neeson comes in, and he just he really, really does lift the answer for me. He is the difference between them being an average band and a good band, like I think they are. And this when this comes in, obviously we're picking up the tempo, picking up the distortion on the guitar, so we have to be a little bit more powerful. But he's not just there going, so why are you going away now to be a million-dollar child? He's not just singing it normally like he was earlier in the song, but no, he's giving it that bluesy passion, that emotion is like, So why are you going away now? To be a million-dollar chah! You know, he's really pushing that vocal ability. I didn't touch it there, and I wish I almost listened to Cormac doing it just before, so I can make sure I had the melody in my head. I kind of made the melody up a little there. But hopefully you got the gist of the message. The information I was trying to convey, the point I was trying to make. Anyway, let's get back into it. Enough of me yapping away pointlessly. Let's get back into the answer and let's get back into the song, Call Yourself a Friend. So we listened to the uh last verse there and a little bit of the kind of final chorus, if you will. There is uh an outro I'm going to play in a moment. So we haven't quite finished the song yet. But I want to call out how you know at the start is the Return to Dust and Ending Lust. That vocal melody comes back in on the last verse, but again with the more power and emotion that the rest of the instruments are forcing on Cormac now. So now instead of return to dust, it's now let every one beneath a lot more emphasis on the words and the power, and it's more rock involved in Cormac's delivery there. And it sounds great the way it builds up. If you go straight into what you get at the end at the beginning, it doesn't quite hit as hard unless you have that beginning. Everything needs a beginning. Life lesson. Now, we're gonna go into the last, say, 30 seconds or so, where it's just like the outro. I think it sounds cool. I'm going to play it for you to kind of wrap up this song. If you had enough of the song, just skip 30 seconds and we'll move on to the next album. This is the end of Call Yourself a Friend. And that was the end of us covering the album New Horizon. Now we're gonna move on to the next album that came out in March of 2015. Let you know there's three more albums from The Answer coming up. This one came out in March 2015, and it's called Raise a Little Hell. Mixed reviews for this one again. You got al uh publications like Classic Rock giving it three out of five, considering it a little touch above average. Then you got Planet Mosh giving it perfect five out of five scores. So mixed reviews as you do get with some of these answer albums. Um the first single was a song called Gone Too Long. Now, what you find with the answer is we're getting into the era now where there aren't really singles coming with the album. They'll do one promotional push right before the album's release, but generally now the songs are just just dropped onto a streaming service, such as Apple Music or Spotify, and that's the album when you go ahead and stream it. We're getting into the era now 2015 where the physical media era is kind of going to the wayside, unless you're like a vinyl enthusiast where you still like to have that physical piece, and sometimes you're even put up as artwork. But generally, people are streamers these days, so you don't get as many like singles like you used to. So that was the only single from this album. These two other songs I want to highlight. One I'll quickly gloss over, just show you the chorus, and the other one we'll listen to a little bit more of. So the first one I kind of want to cover a little bit is a song called Cigarettes and Regret. Cigarettes and Regrets. Sleepless nights in this empty pitch. So I just really like uh how catchy that chorus is, really, and the impact that the rhythm section has, the drums and the bass guitar. Now, when you're listening to that uh little chorus there, did you feel like it was a little like you know languishy, a little wavy, you're not quite headbanging, you're just a lot of rocking back and forth, side to side. Were you feeling that kind of hazy days feeling to the music? If you did, I think the main reason why is that bass guitar. If you listen to it in the background, you won't hear it unless you specifically go looking for it, really. But it's not doing the typical bass guitar thing where it's just playing the root note, maybe a odd fill here and there, but the root note would've been like, or it would've been like doom-da-doom-doom. Depends on the kind of tempo and rhythm he wants to initiate. But he's not doing that. The bass guitar is going. It starts on a high note and it just slides down to the bass note, the root note. And when it's doing that, it's kind of giving you that like slidey, wavy feeling without you even realizing it. At least for me anyway. And I found that interesting, as well as just a guitar riff and core max delivery again, just being top-notch. Um, I find a very, very catchy little chorus there for cigarettes and regret. Now, the next song we're gonna go into is again the ballad of the piece, the ballad of the album. And this song is called Strange Kinda Nothing. Now listen out for Paul Mann's guitar part here. It's on the acoustic guitar. Um, but it just sounds great. It's what really sets the song apart on the album for me. And if you're a fan of like the solo Miles Kennedy stuff I played you earlier, the The Year of the Tiger album, you're gonna love this. Uh, Strange Kinda Nothing.

SPEAKER_07 41:56

It's a strange can of nothing that I feel in my heart. It's been a strange can of nothing from the stall If I thought I was something it was wrong on my part. It's been a strange kind of nothing from the stall.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

So this for me is the answers U2 song. The way Cormac sings, he sounds like Bonner. The way Paul Man is playing the guitar, he sounds like the edge. Now I'm not a huge U2 fan, but I can hear the U2 influence here. And I think it sounds great on this song. It's that the production is different to U2. Um, I think that guitar part wouldn't be as raw acoustic if you two were doing it. But I can certainly hear the influence. That sounds like an edge rift to me, but it sounds really great. And I think this song uh puts a shining light on Paul Man, the guitarist. Whereas, let's be honest, I've been doing a lot of bowing down to Cormac Neeson so far on this podcast. Let's give Paul Man, the founding member of The Answer and main songwriter to Some Love Here. I'm going to play two more clips from this song for you before we go to the next album. Uh the next section I'm gonna play is kind of like the latter half of the second verse going into the instrumental piece. Um, listen out for the U2 influence there. Then I'm gonna come back later and play the end of the song where it jams a little more than it did uh at the start, at least. Anyway, let's get back into it. Strange kinda nothing, and listen out for the U2 influence I was talking about. Played a bit longer than I planned there, but Cormacneeson kept hitting that uh word all. No, with the oooooooooooo. The long-held notes I'm not gonna hold anywhere near as long as he did, but he kept doing it over and over again. I felt like if I cut it off, then it kind of diminishes the clip a little bit, so I kept it all in. Um what is the song a bit about? A strange kind of nothing. Again, like the previous song I try to dissect the lyrics for. This is just my interpretation because there is no factual interpretation online anywhere, either from the band or other fans. So for me, with some of the lyrics like um a wounded soldier's called Born to Rise and Fall, I thought that I was strong. I ain't nothing, nothing at all. There's obviously self-reflection going on there. You think you are a soldier, but you've been wounded, you've been damaged, and you realize you weren't that strong. You needed those other people in your life. And I say other people because there are obviously as a lost one here. Someone that they loved has now been lost, unfortunately, and they are struggling to cope without them. So you got lines coming up like uh every day my heart was breaking without you in my life. It's been a strange godforsaken lullaby. When I sleep, at least I have something in my dreams you'll appear. It's been a strange kind of nothing over here. So yeah, for me, this is basically about uh a lost loved one and how they thought they were strong, but they realize how much they need that one person in their life, and now they don't have them in their life and they're struggling to cope. Uh so a sad song in general, not just in terms of the tone of everything going on, the ballad like esque of it, but also in the lyrical content too. Let's get back into it. We're gonna play the last 40 seconds or so of the song and wrap up uh the album Raise a Little Hell and move on to the next album. There with the Toms. He's not playing a simple beat, rock beat, he's playing along the toms, kind of really giving in to that ballad feel, and that is clearly the answer's U-2 song. Even the way Cormac Neeson just has that long-held note at the end is so Bono-esque, and the riff is so the edge-esque, and that is clearly their U2 song. Now we're going to move on to the next album. The next album came out in October of 2016, so a year and a half later, after Raise a Little Hell, uh, it got four out of five on the classic rock. Uh, however, Angry Metal Guy only gave it one out of five. So again, very, very mixed reviews for this album. Some love it, some in this case very much dislike it. If you've heard the album titled before and you're from outside of Ireland, Northern Ireland, or the Republic of Ireland, you may be mispronouncing this because for other country native English speakers, you would pronounce these letters differently. You say solace or solace. However, this is an Irish word and it translates to the word light, and in Irish you say it as solace. So this album, Solace, came out in October of 2016, and the first single came out a few months prior in August, and it's called Beautiful World. There, which was surprisingly dark for a song called Beautiful World, especially the intro. I only kind of played you a little short clip of the intro before going into the chorus-esque sound. But the intro for the first like minute and a half, it's very, very dark and sombre, and then it comes in with that awesome guitar riff. It is a great track, Beautiful World. If you like it, the thing's a little dark, and you can hear some absolute influence for Cormac Neeson from uh famed D Purple singer Ian Gillen in the background when the loud guitars and everything are playing their riff. You can just hear Cormac going with his high-pitched wail, which is very Ian Gillen-esque. If you want to hear Ian Gillen do it, go listen to D Purple's track Child in Time. He does it throughout. Uh we're gonna move on to one of the other songs now. We're gonna move on to Well, first of all, let's talk about the evolution of the sound of the answer. If you listen to the songs of Cellus, for example, Beautiful World, and you compare that to the songs you heard all the way back at the start of this podcast on that first album, Rise, for example, Under the Sky, or Never Too Late, they sound quite a little different, right? They still got that blues rock DNA, but now we're getting a lot more deeper with the bass on this album, especially in the song you just heard, and especially in the next song I'm gonna show you the title track called Salaus.

SPEAKER_05 52:18

I've got a hunger, but I can't feel beyond my week.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

I don't know where I stand. So that was the song Sullace off the album, SullaS. Uh very much bass-driven track there, and it shows the evolution of sound from the band, The Ans. I mean, you can as I said you compare that to the first album Rise, you know, it was very much a classic rock 70s vibe with a modern twist. Uh this is very different. This reminds me of the band Royal Blood. And if you feel you are unfamiliar with the band Royal Blood because perhaps it's not your sh chosen genre of music that you grew out to listen to, and maybe the band name isn't ringing a bell for you. Well, you probably have heard them is a quick clip of Royal Blood. That was their biggest hit, figure it out, but there's also another big hit this one. Now, Royal Blood are also kind of blues rock influence, but they kind of go more for the I want to say the indie rock audience rather than the rock metal audience that the answer originally went for, but you can definitely hear the answers kind of taking some inspiration almost from Royal Blood here. Um, this album from Royal Blood came out two years prior to Cellus. Uh so there's definitely some correlation time-wise there. As I said, Royal Blood are going more for like the Black E's or the White Stripes audience, where as I said different before the answer are going more for your Led Zeppelin, the purple Aerosmith type audience originally. Uh, and then they're kind of going more for your airborns of the world. The point is though, the answer, like all uh long-standing bands, artists of our earth, our planet, uh, they always evolve their sound. There's only very few exceptions to that. I mean, ACDC might be one, right? Yeah, you listen to Black and Black, it probably sounds very much like anything that come after it. Um, but most bands who have that longevity, they have to evolve their sound to move on with the times to evolve with the music and the fashion of music that is going on around them. As I said, very few are able to not do that and still have that longevity. The answer is doing it here, but they haven't got the answer they're doing it more subtle than other artists have in the past. I mean, some artists have been really clear, it's been really obvious. When they've changed their style from an album to another album, I think Megadeth has failed a little bit, but it is no bigger example than listening to something like Rust in Peace, and then a few albums later they came out with the album Risk. I mean, for those who aren't Megadeth fans and don't understand how jarring that is, here's a quick listen of a little clip from something from Rust in Peace. You would have heard this song. So that was Holy Wars the Punishment, do you've probably heard that one before. Let's listen to a song off uh Risk. This is Crush'em. This is War 8 with no falling games. Crush 'em there. Very, very different albums. Uh Rust and Piece is your full throttle, thrash, metal, epic, classic, and then risk is Dave Mustaine trying to chase a number one single album. Um, and it didn't really work. It's very, very much more commercial, and it was really Megadeth selling out or attempting to sell out because it it failed. It didn't go where Dave Mustaine or the band wanted it to go. Now the answer don't do it as drastic as Megadeth did it. They evolved their sound subtly, so you don't really notice their album to album. But when you go back and you compare Rise to sell us where we are now in death of 2016, compared to when Rise came out, which was in 2005, so 11 years. 11 years, let's be honest. Um yes, if you're a teenager, it sounds like a long, long time, but it's not really that long a time. I mean, if anyone who's in their mid to late 30s or older, if you said to them how long ago was we're in 2026, now if you said how long ago is 2015, you'd probably be like, uh not that long ago, really. You know, not a lot of changed since 2015. But suddenly, certainly when you analyze everything, it it has, it's just happened so gradually, it doesn't feel like a long period of time. And if that's what's the case with the answer, they've suddenly evolved their sound to the point where only when you compare album one to album Salah do you see the difference, and it's a big difference here. But there are some nods back to the original sound of the answer on this album. And I'm not talking about a song from start to finish, but certain influences, and one of them is on this next song I'm gonna show you called Demon Driven Man. There's still a very different song than what you would have found on the early early answer albums, but the influence is still the same. It's still that 70s rock influence, it's just taking a different side of the 70s rock influence than the early early songs like Under the Sky. I mean, I can absolutely imagine that song being on a Led Zeppelin album. It just probably wouldn't be that classic Led Zeppelin song like Black Dog or Whole Lot of Love, for example. But still a cool, cool track, um, just on the lighter side and what they probably did for their classic rock banners in past albums. So the other song of Solace I want to cover, and I'll cover a little bit more in depth, is this next track is called Left Me Standing. Uh this track is different to uh other answer songs for me. This one has almost like uh almost like a punk uh kind of inspiration to it, and it reminds me a little bit of, although they're not a punk band, but a little bit like Billy Talent. Um let's get to it.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:59

Left Me Standing Way and never back. I'm broken hard, I know you go. I just don't mean you wouldn't give a cut leave it, never really worry back home.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:03

Swab me up, swab me up, swab me up So you've got that rhythm there that reminds me of that alt-rock kind of punk sound. Like I mentioned, Billy Talet, the Gaslight Anthem is another band that it kind of reminds me of a little bit as well, um, who is heavily inspired by Bruce Springsteen. So the boss is kind of like a little inspiration here for me as well. The Billy Talent one. I think if you take if you take out Cormac Neeson and you added in those American Californian style accented vocals that you get in a lot of punk. So instead of the first line, for example, instead of singing it like Cormac does, which goes something like this you walked away and you never look back. A broken heart, you don't care about that, I know you don't. You know, if you had that Californian style punk alt rock singing, it'd be like you walked away, you never looked back. A broken heart, you don't care about that, I know you don't. You put that style of vocal and take a call Macneason, uh I think you'd get very I think you'd understand the where the comparison I'm going for with that punk alt rock billy talent type of sound. And if you found my impression of the Californian accent insulting, then I apologize. I admit it's not my jam, but I tried. So let's get back to the answer in the song Left Me Standing. We're gonna cut to the final chorus because that chorus is very, very catchy, if you ask me. So let's get back to it.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:49

Left me standing up, left me standing there, and that brings me to the end of the album Sullace.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:07

And after the album Sullace, the band took a hiatus around this period due to the basically burnout of non-stop touring and writing, and a desire to experience different things in their lives. Everything was mutual, there was no hard feelings from anyone, no blowouts, arguments, no animosity or drama, just everyone in agreement that they needed a break and they'll get back together somewhere down the road. Spoiler that does happen. But before we get there, singer Cormac Neeson, he does a solo album, which is very different to the answer in terms of musical style. And I'll play a little bit for you now. This solo album called White Feather came out in April of 2019, so three years after Solace. Uh, let's have a quick listen to the track White Feather. So Cormac Neeson's first solo outing there with the song White Feather from the album White Feather. And I'll play another clip from a different song on the same album in a little bit. But the style is very different from the band, The Answer. Whether this is more to Cormac Neeson's personal taste or just a genre music he wanted to explore and have some fun in, you'll have to ask Cormac, he's never said publicly. However, you tend to find with some of these great bluesy, head-focused, inspired singers, um, I'm thinking of bands like Simply Red with a cattle. Uh, you've also got Michael Bolton, more recently, Rick Acidly. I've seen Sir Tom Jones do it himself as well. They'll have their big hits from their main era, the main heyday, wherever it's never gonna give you up. You know, it's not unusual, fairground, whatever the band song is. And then years and years later, when you've still got a kind of core hardcore fan base, but they're not picking up new fans as such. And the artist is probably fed up of playing the same old hits, and they just wanna release some music that's just fun and new to make and creative, uh, with some probably studio musicians as well to help them uh write and record the songs. They tend to come out with music like this, which I would call uh it's definitely blues rock uh inspired and focused, but more in a soft rock style, and there's a heavy focus to hear on uh RB rhythm and blues as well, less in the hip-hop realm, like you tend to think of when you say RB, but more in the uh original focus of it, which is rhythm and blues, and you can you can hear that with some of the drums and the rhythm section in general. But it's a lot softer, you've got the brought the piano in as well, and it is a very, very different vibe, more chilled out, almost like a studio session vibe is how I want to describe it. They're making the album here rather than the single, trying to climb up the charts. And as I said, you tend to find this with some of the great singers. Uh, they tend to go down this route years and years after their big heyday where the hits have all kind of had their chance to shine and they've moved on. And now they just want to have some fun and still have that core fan base to sell records with, and they want to do what they consider a good record rather than a commercial record. Obviously, with the answer, they're not commercial, so it's a bit different in Cormac's case, but yeah, as I've mentioned, those names I mentioned Rick Astley, uh Sir Tom Jones, Simply Red, Michael Bolton, etc. etc. There are more examples. Now let's listen to a little bit more of another song off this album, White Feather. It's in the same style, but just so you've got more than one song to compare your thoughts for Cormac Neeson's solo. This song uh is called Do Something Today. Cormac Neesons and his solo effort there. Go check it out if you like what you hear. Now we're gonna go back to the answer, and I gave you uh a spoiler and I said they would get back together further down the road, and down the road for them was seven years later. So Solus came out in October of 2016, and their next album called Sundowners came out in March of 2023, so three years ago as of recording, and it got some favorable reviews mostly. Classic Rock gave it four out of five, Planet Marsh gave it a perfect five out of five, Buzz Magazine gave it four out of five, The Rock Pit gave it nine out of ten, and Distorted Sound magazine gave it four out of ten. So they were uh more on the unfavorable side, but the other publications gave it either perfect or very, very, very good reviews. And the first single uh came out a good few months prior to the album, it came out in October of 2022, and that song is called Blood Brotherhood.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:46

Sister Shadow Lad on me!

SPEAKER_00 1:12:49

Played just over a minute there of Blood Brother covering the intro, the verse, and the chorus. Uh, so you get a good feel of what that song was like, and it is going back to um that blues influence, but while keeping that heavy bass that they showcased on the album Sulla. So it's kind of like a fusion in a little way, and Cormac is kind of bringing those blues vocals, which he always did. He never lost that, let's be honest. But it is still in that royal blood vibe for me. And it does mainly focus on that one uh pounding minimalist rock groove, um, which is synonymous with the blues. Uh, and this is just them doing it really, really well and quite catchy with the chorus, too. But we're gonna pick out uh a different song off this album, Sundowners Now, but it's still gonna showcase everything I just mentioned about the song Blood Brother and how it has that heavy bass blues focused inspiration that they kind of dived headfirst into on the album Sullace and they've carried forward onto this album Sundowners. This one Blood Brother was track two, this one's track one, and it's the title track Sundowners. There, and you've definitely got a royal blood influence, but also a U2 influence coming through for me there, more like Vertigo era U2, but one of those album tracks you don't really get the music videos and singles for. One of those tracks with the drums playing on the toms, the heavy bass, the microphone effects going on, and the reverb and core machine of the voice is trying so hard to be cool. And I guess it is kind of cool, but I hear U2 and Royal Blood in there. And it's uh the same style as Blood Brother, the next track that follows after the one I've already played, the first single. It's very much trying to be of the times, the current times, and trying to be cool, which I find a lot of music these days is trying to be the ones that are successful, at least anyway, the ones that are trying to be commercial, they are all trying to be cool. Cool music is in now. I mean, you look at the radio, what's at the top of the charts, it's generally always either hip hop, rap, or occasionally a pop song, or occasionally some sort of Latin America sound and like the reggaeton that is a major, major part of Latin America pop music and rap. Uh, all of those things are always trying to be cool, very uh rarely that successful. You may get like a pop ballad that's trying to be emotional about uh breakup and love, etc. But more often than not, though everything is just rapping about how cool they are, how awesome they are, how much money they make, how much uh sex they have, whatever it is. And to be honest, I find it kind of cringe, at least in this instance, that the music is trying to be cool rather than the lyrics or the persona of who is singing the character. Which I find a bit cringe, and I imagine most of my listeners do too, because we're in a rock and metal world and we don't really focus on that. Sure, you get bands like Slayer and Marilyn Manson that try to ham up the anti-Christ messaging, you know, pushing lyrics around demonic rituals, etc. I mean, let's be honest, Norwegian black metal is all over the anti-church messaging, but a lot of that is just a kind of just adding a character to the stage show. Rarely is it actually them and what they feel and think, and rarely is that what the listener, us, the rock and metal fans gravitate to those bands because of. Um sure it gives them publicity, so you hear them uh either on TV or radio or whatever, you hear the name of the band and you recognize it, and you maybe check out a song, but it's the song itself, the album itself, that sells you the band, regardless of what they're singing about, or wearing or makeup, whatever. That's just a stage persona. It's not what goes on when you press a play in your streaming service or press a play on your vinyl machine, you know. Uh but for other people, it it is the case that uh the lyrical content and how cool someone sounds, or some diss track and some big badass line as they put it. Oh my god, he owned him with that line. This track's so cool. Couldn't care less. That's one line out of how many. And that first four lines probably has nothing to do with the last four lines content-wise either. It's just spitting nonsense. My rant over. Let's get back to the answer. Then the next song I'm gonna cover is one that absolutely would be found on the first answer album. If they wrote it in that time and recorded it in that time, of course. But this time it's on the latest album in 2023 Sundowners, and it's called California Rust. They still have that blues rock influence, even on the cool tracks, but then there's songs like California Rust when I just break out classic the answer DNA sound, and as I said, it could very easily just be inserted onto that first album Rise, and it would fit right in like a glove. Not an OJ Simpson glove, but a real Mickey Mouse style glove. One that fits. Now there's one other track I want to show off this album, Sundowners, and it's the final track on the album, and it'll be the final answer track I show you on this podcast series, and then we're gonna wrap up with a conclusion on what my thoughts are on the answer. And I said this track is the final track on the album Sundowners, and it's called Always Alright.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:05

Sometimes I need to lose myself in the wilderness.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:18

This is what happens if you mix Simply Red with U2 with the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones part comes later, you'll hear it when you hear it. But at the moment, I'm getting very much that soft rock vibes of like a U2 ballad, mixed with the vocals of McCutnell from Simply Red. Who Cormac Eason has that kind of blues inspiration with and that raspiness in that voice with both great, great singers. It's a very chilled out rock song at the moment. It's very beautiful, it sounds great, and Cormac is killing it with his vocal delivery and the emotion that is coming out with it. And the band are just there to support Cormac at this point in time with the vibe and the emotion and the kind of things he's singing about. I mean, in essence, this is a love song. For example, the lyrics you just heard were sometimes I need to lose myself in the wilderness, cool water, they're gonna ease my mind. At least I know that if I digress, you'll br drag me back. Oh yeah, you'll drag me back across that line. And it's always alright no matter what I do, it's always alright with you. So basically, Cormac is saying, even when I'm down and I need to get out from this busy lifestyle, the city, my house, whatever, into the world, into the country to free my mind. I know everything's gonna be okay, no matter how down I am, because I have you. I am with you. When I'm with you, everything is always alright, no matter what's happening away from you. It's a love song, basically. And a thank you and appreciation to that person. A Cormac obviously loves it. I'm assuming it's his wife. I don't know if he's married or not, but if it's not his wife, then I'm sure it's his girlfriend, partner. Hey, I don't know if he's gay, maybe it's his boyfriend, who knows? But it's his significant other. Let's get back into it. We're gonna listen to the latter half of the second chorus, and then it kind of kicks up in a little bit up tempo. This is where the Rolling Stones inspiration and fusion comes in for me. Let's give that a listen. Cormac's picking up his vocals. First off, at the end of the first and the second chorus, when he holds that falsetto note, well done, Cormac Neeson. Brilliant delivery and excellent execution there on the vocals. But then it kicks in and it brings it up and it gives me Rolling Stones, uh, Symphony for the Devil kind of vibes. And it sounds great and it's picking up and it's giving a climax to the album. And for me, it's giving a climax to this series on this podcast, too. So we're gonna wrap up this answer section here. We're gonna play the final 30 seconds of the song Always Alright, and now we're gonna move on to the conclusion. So here is the end of Always Alright. Sundowners, and wrap up this podcast series on the answer. What are my thoughts on the answer? Well, I've included them here as my hidden gem band for this podcast series for a reason, because I like the answer. I said how I liked them that first time I unknowingly saw them for the first time when I went to that white snake gig and the answer was supporting, and me and my friends were all like, ha ha, who's this band? What a stupid band name for the answer. Ooh, what a silly logo on uh drum kit, etc. etc. And then they played that first song, which I believe was Under the Sky, but I could be wrong because there's no set list uh available for that particular gig in Cardiff online. It certainly was one of the upbeat tracks from the album Rise, the first album. And as soon as I heard that riff, and then as soon as I heard Cormac Neeson singing and how talented he was is, um, I was blown away. I thought they were a great, great band, and I went out and I I think I downloaded rather than bought the album Rise and I supported them since then. Uh they are a great, great band. Uh one of those bands that are the sum of their parts, I guess, in that you need Paul Man, who obviously was the first member he formed the band. You need him. He's he's he's critical for the songwriting, the blues influence, some of the riffs. You need him. You need James Heatley on the drums. Uh, you've got some of these snare fills and stuff, and the way he carries some of the songs on the toms. Uh, you need James Heatley in the band. You also need Mickey Waters on the bass, especially on the stuff from Salaus Onwards, where it's very bass heavy focus stuff that was inspired by royal blood. But the key key part that you absolutely need in this band and is a must you can't do without it, is call Magneeson on the vocals. If you have an average vocalist in this band, I don't think they make it. I think they're a pub band at that point, not because the Songs aren't good enough, or the other band members aren't good enough on their chosen instruments. That's not the case at all. The songs are good enough and they are talented enough on the guitars and the bass guitar and the drums, as I've already mentioned. But with this style of music, um, it very easily turns into um a pub band or what turns out to be a cover band, so they can make some money when they got an average singer because there are so many people doing this kind of music in the local scene. But Cormac Neeson sets him apart because he is up there with I'm not gonna say he's up there with the Rob Halfords or the Robert Plants or the Ian Gillens of the world, and I think that's because the band aren't as big as those bands like Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, etc., which are some of their inspirations, but he is unique and he sounds world-class. He sounds like someone that should be a recording artist, someone that should be fronting a well-known, successful, professional band that is making money and therefore doing tours year in, year out, and making it their career rather than a hobby. He separates them from those pub bands, those cover bands, that unfortunately don't make it out of the local scene, the local town, city, whatever it is, and never get that record company. He is pivotal, and he is the reason. I mean, Paul Mahn knew how good a singer he was. He's the reason why he called him back from New York where he was trying to make it as a blue singer, and got him into this band, this project, the answer. And he really separates them, and then what you end up getting is just kick-ass songs. If you want a band that's gonna give you complicated, progressive time signatures, uh tomber differences, unique genre fusions, if you want something that's ridiculously heavy, unique, this probably isn't the band for you. But if you like your songs to be kick-ass, catchy, sing along, good. I mean, ACDC are one of the biggest bands in the world, if not maybe even the biggest rock band in the world. And yet their songs are just kick-ass bangers, right? Highway to hell, back in black, you shook me all night long. Uh, for those about to rock, we salute you, etc. etc, etc. They're all just kick-ass three to four minute bangers. They're not writing 10, 20 minute epics. The answer are doing the same. The problem for the answer, the reason why they're not as big as those bands, why they're a hidden gem band and not one of those bands we're looking for the hidden gem tracks like Iron Maiden. Well, simple being is that they're a product of the time, I guess. Their main influence is, I guess, 70s, 80s classic rock, but with a modern twist, kind of like Airborne did. Uh, but like Airborne, they haven't broke through as one of a major act because that time period has kind of passed. Uh, you know, the first album for The Answer came out in 2005. That is probably two decades too late, perhaps, to hit the same audience that are listening to this music on a wide, wide global scale. To make it as your headline acts on your festival rather than the fourth or fifth band from the end. Which probably let's be honest, the answer probably are unless you're in Northern Ireland. But that doesn't mean they're not a good band today. It just means the wider global audience at the likes of Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, name another classic rock band from the 70s and 80s that made it. Those bands that are able to even headline festivals today, that global audience that they were able to capture in their heyday, uh, those people tend to they either listen, grow up, and still listen to the bands from their youth and don't really listen to anything new. Uh, I'm guilty of that a little bit myself as well. I feel like I got my favorite bands. I'll listen to them on repeat rather than give uh a new band starting today playing the same type of music a chance. Sometimes, some people, my brother being one of them, he loves Judas Priest. But if I showed him a band starting today that sounded exactly and just I like Judas Priest and just as good, he'd probably dismiss them as a Judas Priest copycat and give them or not give them the time of day. Some people will maybe put the answer in that category. Some people into those 70s, 80s classic rock just want to listen to the 70s and 80s classic bands and don't want to listen to the new bands doing the same thing. Even if it's better, they just don't care. They still live in that nostalgic youth internally in their mindset. And then you got the people who maybe love those bands when they were in their youth, but they just follow the fashion of music. And let's be honest, in the 70s and 80s, rock was all over TV, like MTV, for example, there's music videos everywhere. I think rock was the first thing MTV ever showcased before they moved on to the pop world. I mean, some of these American hair metal bands, you know, with their lead singers like David Lee Roth, he was before hair metal and Van Halen, but he kind of moved into the hair metal world, and then you got people from like Vince Neal from Motley Crue, Tommy Lee. They are heartthrobs, you know, for the masses, not just people into that music either. People would listen to Motley Crue, De Poison, uh Bret Lee, etc. They would listen to all of this hair metal bands, not because they like the song necessarily, but just because they fancied the singer, the guitarist, the drummer, whoever it is. Uh that's just fashion right there. Obviously, that moved into the pop world then, and some of the pop heart throbs of some of the boy bands like New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, etc., and the kind of the rock heart throb fell away. But in the 80s, it was especially they were mainstream, and those people who were following them for those reasons just moved on to other genres of music where that kind of fashion transitioned into. So they're not gonna give the answer the time of the day, even if they still go back and listen to Bon Jovi songs because when they were younger they fancied John Bon Jovi. And if I'm honest, I don't think the answer wants those kind of fans either. They want the rock enthusiasts, the people they are in their hearts. The reason why they chose to play the music they do is because they love that style of music, that blues rock, classic rock, and they want other people like-minded to be listened to their band because that is who they are writing their songs for, and they are very, very good at it. And as a result, they deserve more recognition than they get. They deserve to be known as one of those pioneers of that sound of music. And for people who are fans of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, or even slightly heavier bands like Iron Maiden to give them a shot, to give them a go, to give the answer a try. Because I think they'll like a lot of what they hear. I think they're an excellent band who just came at the wrong time for them. But paying homage to their past heroes, and therefore they've managed to make a career out of it. I mean, the last first album's 2005, the most recent album, Sundown is in 2023. They're still touring to this day. Their lead singer managed to get a deal to get a solo album out, White Feather. So they've obviously obviously had some success to the point where they can make it a professional career, but I don't think this band are millionaires, like you know, the likes of John Bon Jovi, Robert Plant, you name your classic rock hero, uh Mick Jagger, for example. They're nowhere near their level of success, but they've had enough success to call themselves professional musicians and still be touring uh 21 years after their first album came out. And that is a success story. But I hope they get more success from this podcast series if possible. If you liked what you heard from The Answer, please do go check them out. They are a great, great band with a great back catalogue, and hopefully, more songs and albums to come for you to listen to and hopefully enjoy. And hopefully, you've enjoyed this episode on Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems podcast. This is a series where we focus on the hidden gem band that deserve more love and recognition and respect from the rock and metal listeners out there from around the world. Remember that we alternate formats on this podcast, so the next series will flip back to that legendary band, or very successful band at least, who have that big back catalogue, but have those hidden gem tracks on each album, and those tracks don't get the respect and recognition that they deserve, and we highlight those. We've done Iron Maiden, we've done Nightwish, and we're gonna do the next series, will be in that format. Which Bando Artist will we cover? Will it be from the rock or metal world? You'll have to wait to find out like everyone else when that podcast drops, hopefully sooner than it took for this one to come out. I am your host, Daniel Stuckey. This is Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems Podcast. If you want your favorite Bando artist to be covered on this podcast, whether they are the Hidden Gem Band like The Answer, or if they are the legendary, great, successful band like Nightwish or Iron Maiden, and you want their hidden gem tracks highlighted, just send in your requests by email to the email address in the podcast episode description. And I hope you've enjoyed this one on The Answer. I hope you add them to your playlist, give the albums a spin, and I'll see you next time. Bye bye.