Last Train - III

Having recently announced their signing to [PIAS] France, acclaimed Lyon-based four-piece Last Train present details of their new album, ‘III’, recorded with long-term producer and virtual fifth member, Rémi Gettliffe, in a crumbling chateau in the
middle of France in the middle of Winter.

The band had a recent run of UK dates supporting The Luka State. With over 500 shows behind them in eight years, further UK headline shows are to be announced shortly.

Formed while still at school together in the 2010s, the last few years have seen Last Train not only forge a committed and passionate fanbase around their music but also earn the approval of the likes of Muse and Placebo, who have both invited Last Train to join them on tour and, like those two UK rock giants, with ‘III’ Last Train have created an album full of stunning contrasts, possessing a series of dynamics that shift, twist and turn in ways that will engross in a raw and direct manner.

‘III’ is also a record of righteous anger, because it turns out when you are a band used to pouring your hearts and soul into rock songs and then playing them live every night, when you skip that kind of expression over a period of time thanks to lockdown, a lot of feeling builds up. “We were pissed off!” smiles the band’s Julien Peultier of the energy behind ‘III’. “I don’t know why, but that’s how it felt to me.”

“We hadn’t toured, so we hadn’t played a show for a year-and-a-half, which is something that has never happened with Last Train before because we deeply love
playing shows,” reasons Last Train’s Jean-Noël Scherrer in agreement. “So we were
frustrated and full of anger. We were ready for the fight when we came to these songs.”

Written in a three-month-long burst at their Lyon base, songs for ‘III’ understandably flowed quickly, something reflected in the passion behind the album’s dynamics which range from unconstrained, loud emotional bursts to quieter - sometimes enthralling, sometimes menacing - sections, but all shot through with a burning intensity.

It’s an atmosphere that pervades the album. Opening with ‘Home’, which mixes lightning strike guitars and relentless drums with a simple lament, the mix of raw emotion and violently precise musical energy is both striking and hypnotic. Fragile feeling tracks ‘How Does It Feel?’ and ‘This Is Me Trying’, which sit either side of the relentless outburst of ‘All To Blame’, step back from the blistering opening pace though neither flinches from the strength of feeling, as they pervasively and intoxicating expand. ‘Revenge’ radiates around a truly warming core - possibly inspired by the diet of pop music the group consumed in their spare moments - before blooming into a haze of chiming guitars, which is quickly followed by ‘One By One’s’ charging urgency. Following the spacey interlude ‘You’ve Ruined Everything’, ‘III’ concludes with ‘I Hate You’. Although its languid opening section initially contrasts with the bitter sentiments of the title, there’s no danger of Last Train running out of the anger that fuelled the record, as ‘III’ ends in a blaze of driving music and wild feedback powerful enough to conquer any castle.

“It's an intense album but one that really creates something for the audience,” concludes Scherrer. “I don’t think it is the kind of record where you’re just going to say ‘yeah, yeah, I like it’ but ‘that made me feel something!’ You will have a reaction to this music, which is what we wanted.” ‘III’ really is the charm.

Tracklist:

Home
The Plan
How Does It Feel?
All To Blame
This Is Me Trying
Revenge
One By One
You’ve Ruined Everything
I Hate You