Send No Flowers, Downfall

Back in 1996, the vastly underrated British grunge 5-piece 'Send No Flowers' released their single for the track 'Downfall' which were taken from their awesome album 'Juice'. The digi-pak packaging for the CD sported the usual subtle imagery and graphic design that was included on all of their other releases.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Downfall

2. Shine

3. Profit Margin

4. Hunchback

The first track on the CD is the truly awesome grunge track 'Downfall'. This is one of my favourite tracks from the album 'Juice'. It's bursting at the seams with hard hitting guitar riffs and musical suspense that builds into an explosive ending of pure aggressive raw emotion. You really have to hear this track to understand how very talented this band are at writing grunge music.

Next we have the B-Side 'Shine'. This slow paced rock track, sounds like it belongs on a Soundgarden album. The melody to the track is completely addictive. The song as a whole is a grower that demands a second listen. The chorus is very powerful, with the vocals producing a very dominant part to the structure of the track. The outro takes you on a very Alice In Chains style of ending, with a massive build to the end.

Track three is the fast paced B-Side 'Profit Margin' that starts off with in a very punky style. Short for a Send No Flowers track, the song only reaches 2mins 14secs! This rockin track delivers an anthem style of chorus, which would have been an absolute sing-along favourite when watching them live.

Lastly we have the B-Side 'Hunchback'. The song structure and sound is very similar to the usual Send No Flowers track. A very riff dominant track, due to the chunky, funky riffs involved here, the song will quickly become a favourite track to you. Matt's vocals are again absolutely brilliant. The song finishes on a very emotional platform leaving you wanting to throw on some more of their music.

The band were unfortunately dropped by East West a while back and went on to form the little heard of band Shineola where they produced a two track 7" record for the song 'Strung Out'. This record was limited to 400 copies released, with each coming in a hand-stamped sleeve. Vocalist Matt was then taken seriously ill with something like a ruptured spleen or burst appendix. They haven't been heard of since apart from their drummer Thomas Broman who played in the Ginger formed rock band Silver Ginger 5.