Laying waste to Leeds for the past three years, Northern trio Lifescreen have been steadily building up a fan base as solid as their driving riffs. Born from the ashes of previous band, Nerve Engine, Mark Burrows (vocals, guitar) and Andy Richards (drums) hooked up with dreadlocked bassist Chris Unwin to create a powerful triangular melting pot of influences that delivers a mixture of classic hard edged British rock overwashed with an alternative tinted top coat.

Continuing a steady stream of self financed releases to keep Lifescreen in the public eye, 'Connexions' clocks in as release number three for the lads from Leeds. Following on from 2008's ' Deprogramming', which itself was preceeded by the EP 'Extended Play 1', 'Connexions' gives us ten tracks of riff laiden tunes built with a fusion of rock styles that embraces both unbridled ambience and aggressive assault in equal measure. Plus, considering there's only three of them, there's a disproportionate wall of noise eminating from the speakers. Sometimes crawling, sometimes lurching yet always intruiging 'Connexions' offers a collection of songs that would be perfectly at home on the musical middle ground between Skid Row's 'Subhuman Race' and Alice In Chains' 'Dirt'.

 
The heavy swinging riff that opens and occasionally frequents 'Opting Out' is interspaced with some seam-free transitions into Foo Fighters style easy access rock that melds the styles perfectly to the heavier undercurrent of the tune, while the triumphant 'If It's Easy' provides the catchiest moments of 'Connextions' - a Wildhearts soundalike that raises the bar with an instantly infectious chorus that's sure to guarantee it a place in the hearts and minds of anyone who hears it. Clocking in at just 2 minutes 42 seconds it's a short lived blitzkrieg of enthusiasm before the melancholic meandering of 'Losing You' pours out its Alice In Chains soul for all to see. These two back to back tracks showcase perfectly what potential Lifescreen are harbouring. A few more in the vein of these two would be no bad thing indeed. That's not to say that the other tracks are of lesser quality though, 'Unknowns' is fine paean to 'Down In A Hole' mellowness, the clean harmonious vocals of Burrows in this instance echoing the the emotional delivery of the late Layne Staley.

Overall what we have here is a professional, well produced and extremely well written effort, providing some rock solid foundations for plenty of future development to be built upon. Given that Lifescreen have turned out a genuine little diamond like 'Connexions' without any outside help just goes to show that they're a band that would benefit hugely by being picked up and having some backing to support the fantastic start and promise they've shown so far. Hopefully we'll be hearing more from these guys in the future. In the meantime 'Connexions' is available for download from all your main online stores like Amazon and Play and is well worth a punt for anyone who likes a little alternative edge to their mainstream rawk. Check out their myspace for further details on album availability as well as upcoming show dates so you can soon be catching a little bit of Lifescreen Live at Leeds.

http://www.myspace.com/lifescreen