With their defiantly titled sophomore album Knowing What You Know Now, Marmozets are back after an unusually long break. Their debut The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets (2014) sent shockwaves throughout the British rock scene, culminating in them supporting Muse on their Psycho arena tour around the country in 2015. However, their fairy-tale rise was cut short at their performance at Leeds Festival when lead singer Becca Macintyre broke her knee on stage, resulting in the band having to cancel their huge American tour. Finally, they are back and ready to build on the phenomenon they created four years ago.

First off, what is immediately noticeable and undeniable is that Knowing What You Know Now isn’t as heavy and has a silkier production than their previous one, but in contrast to the general rock scene, Marmozets are still grittier than most. The opening track ‘Play’ starts the album off with a venomous bite and on ‘Meant To Be’ the track ends with a violent breakdown of thundering drums, a dark thick guitar riff with Becca’s vocals on the broader of screamo.

What’s so impressive about this album is its ingenuity and freshness; so many genres and style have been subtly integrated into Knowing What You Know Now to create a new shade of modern rock. The momentous build up and break down on ‘Habits’ shows that the band has learnt from the greats as Becca’s long animalistic high pitch scream piercing above a sudden and fast guitar riff is reminiscent of the ferocity and theatrics of Robert Plant or Ozzy Osbourne. On the final chorus of ‘Major System Error’ the volume of the entire song tones down and the drum beat intensifies leading to a huge boom of sound, almost like a rock variant of a bass drop from a drum n’ bass track. Then, on ‘Insomnia’, Becca’s hypnotic vocals intermingle with the trippy, rippled effect of the guitar creating a psychedelic and ethereal sound.

Marmozets have clearly gained confidence after the success of their debut and their subsequent tours, and this can seen by them taking themselves out of their comfort zone on occasion. ‘Me & You’ is one of the mellowest tracks they have ever created, with Becca’s isolated beautiful and soft vocals with only a backing of a minimalistic sea of a slow guitar riff and electronic drum-beat.

There is no sense of a gradual transition between the tracks but, instead, brutal contrast that takes you by surprise every time. After the respite of ‘Me & You’, the listener is immediately thrown back into the brutality and ferocity with ‘Suffocation’, with thickly distorted bass and guitars and a chorus reminiscent of the stadium sound of Royal Blood. This constant uncertainty and unpredictability is what makes the album so exciting.

Knowing What You Know Now is experimental and occasionally ingenious, as Marmozets tackle a multitude of genres and classic styles and make them their own. It may not be as heavy and raw as their previous work but it shows their ever-developing confidence, maturity and diversity, as well as reaffirming Becca Macintyre’s position as one of the most captivating and ferocious front-women in the current rock scene. (8/10) (Sandie Garland)

Listen to Knowing What You Know Now by Marmozets here via Spotify, and tell us what you think below!