Purge are a four-piece, alternative rock band based in Manchester and featuring Bob Hunter on guitar and lead Vocals, Haiden Mchale on lead guitar, Josh Wirth on bass and vocals, and finally Danny Smith playing drums. The band describe themselves as grunge and it easy to see and hear why, but there is also a very strong classic rock influence present in Purge. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to imagine ‘Machete’ being played in the background of American TV show, Supernatural while Sam and Dean kill demons.The song is built on the kind of riff that Ritchie Blackmore used to come up with during Deep Purple’s classic era and I even think he might have been proud of it. Bob Hunter puts on a very mannered performance on the vocals. The style he adopts is faintly reminiscent of “You Really Got Me” era Ray Davies, but obviously way more modern and US inflected. Dual guitar riff playing is very hard to pull off, particularly when there are counter melodies involved, but he and lead guitarist, Haiden Mchale still manage to do so with gusto. Perhaps both are helped by their mighty rhythm section. Danny Smith’s drumming is powerful at the same time as tasteful and Josh Wirth’s bass playing is just as muscular.

Purge obviously put in a lot of practice because it is obvious that they function as a unit when they play. Each member of the band seem to anticipate what the other is going to do and this comes out very well in ‘Machete’. Later in the track the band jam a little, which shows off their playing skills. Some people are put off by longer instrumental breaks but I enjoyed this one. The song is quirky and poppy in a way that reminds me of early 1990s American alternative rock bands. It’s hard to think of a specific one but their humour reminds me of The Lemonheads for some reason, but Purge’s sound is far more riff based rock than Evan Dando’s more lyrical songs. There is an element of The Foo Fighters with Purge, but even that is only cosmetic. Purge already seem to have come up with their own idiosyncratic sound which is very much their own. I personally would be reluctant to place them in the grunge category because their sound isn’t as focused on scuzzy distortion and self-loathing as that genre tended to be. Let’s call it post-grunge instead.

They certainly come across as a band that would be worth seeing live, so why not catch them at Chester Rocks 2014 on Saturday 7th June 2014, June 21st Headliner Festival 2014 in Stockport Rugby Club, Stockport or 8th August at the Hard Rock Café in Manchester?

https://www.facebook.com/Purgeband?fref=ts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXVXTvss49c