Chapel Club
Palace
Apparently Dalston’s Chapel Club name was inspired by St Lukes, the church near their rehearsal space on Old Street, and their lead singer Lewis Bowan’s fascination with religion.
It’s kind of fitting because there’s a certain ecclesiastical grandeur to the quintet’s debut album Palace. Just as gothic steeples supposedly reach up to God, Chapel Club’s towering reverb-drenched guitars and driving rhythm section seem to be reach a pitch of brooding intensity that is almost transcendental on tracks such as Surfacing and After Flood.
The achingly lovely Echo And The Bunnyman-ish The Shore, offers some respite from the gloom but a few more chinks of light might have been nice.
Alison Grinter