Hundred Days – Mission Exodus

From the sleepy rural splendour of Yeovil, Somerset come heavy rockin’ trio Hundred Days.  Formed in the summer of 2007 Stuart Curtin (lead guitar & vocals), Simon Evans (bass) and Ryan Leese (drums) got back together after taking a year out from former band X-Teller and decided to set out afresh with renewed vigour. With influences from Feeder and Muse to Velvet Revolver and Thin Lizzy Hundred Days are a classic rock band and make no pretences about being anything else.
October 22nd saw the band release their third full length release – Mission Exodus on Rogue Rock Records.

On the whole, the album is a generic classic rock album, Hundred Days are doing nothing new or groundbreaking here, which in a way is fine, it just doesn’t stand out or try to get its self noticed.  Basically it is a very “safe” album.

Hundred Days kick things off with an intro that is dark and moody with a real Blade Runner Sci-fi feel to it, before giving way to opening track Mission Exodus.  With its classic rock guitar sound and clean vocal it has echoes of Final Countdown by Europe except without the shrill high notes.  Next up is Taste of Convenience, a track that combines the guitar soloing and drum work of Velvet Revolver with the rhythm work and vocal feel of some of the newer Iron Maiden albums.  It works really well in my opinion and is probably my favourite track on the album.

However from here on out all of the tracks are much of a muchness in all honesty.  Tracks like Suicide Joe, You Keep Fighting and Heads Are Turning are just generic rock albeit presented very well played expertly and are very polished tracks, they just fail to excite.

Hundred Days have tried to mix things up a wee bit by throwing in a couple of cover versions.  First up is Power of Love by Heuy Lewis and The News.  As far as cover versions go, this is very disappointing, it is just them playing the song, there is no spin on it, no attempt to make it their own.  Sadly the “live” version of Live and Let Die is no better I’m afraid.  I can only assume it was recorded live in a studio as it doesn’t have the feel or energy like it should if it were taken from a live set and there is zero crowd noise.  So for me, both of the covers are a little unnecessary.
A nicer way to end the album would have been with the acoustic look back at the opening track, cunningly entitled Exodus (Reprise)

Whilst I might not have enjoyed the entire album, it’s very hard to argue with the musicianship of the band.  Singer and guitarist Stuart Curtin has a voice made for this style of music and his technical ability on the guitar is very high with some really nice soloing throughout the album.  Whilst the rhythm section of drummer Ryan Leese and bassist Simon Evans feels like a steady hand holding everything in check.

Although the musicianship is of a high standard the album is not so I shall be awarding it only 5/10.  It is a solid classic rock album, but just not very exciting.

Mission Exodus was released on Monday October 22nd via Rogue Rock Records and will be available for download from all the usual online out lets.

Track Listing:
1. Intro
2. Mission Exodus
3. Taste of Convenience
4. What We Do
5. Burn in Hell
6. Suicide Joe
7. Power of Love
8. Psycho Woman
9. Whatever Happened to You?
10. You Keep Fighting
11. Heads Are Turning
12. Exodus (Reprise)
13. Launch
14. Started To End
15. Live and Let Die (Live)

Hundred Reasons are:
Stuart Curtin – Guitars and Vocals
Simon Evans – Bass
Ryan Leese – Drums

http://hundreddays.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/hundreddays/info
http://www.myspace.com/thehundreddays

About Del Preston

So there I am, in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, looking for one thousand brown M&Ms to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night. So, Jeff Beck pops his head 'round the door, and mentions there's a little sweet shop on the edge of town. So - we go. And - it's closed. So there's me and Keith Moon and David Crosby, breaking into that little sweet shop, eh. Well, instead of a guard dog, they've got this bloody great big Bengal tiger. I managed to take out the tiger with a can of mace, but the shop owner and his son, that's a different story altogether. I had to beat them to death with their own shoes. Nasty business really. But sure enough, I got the M&Ms and Ozzy went on stage and did a great show.