I’m late coming to a review for this EP but it’s so good I just couldn’t let it pass.
First a little bit of information for those who haven’t dipped into Echoviolet’s releases lately; Echoviolet are now a heavy band. By this I mean that they’re still doing complex music but it’s darker and heavier.
The opening track – ‘Playing With Fire’ – really shows this. It’s heavy guitar riffs but there’s more than a touch of psychedelic, or even acid, rock in the sound. It dances on the edge of chaos, ever shifting and twisting. It’s all dense dark ominous sounds that are frankl scary, and at the same time glorious. This is no ordinary heavy rock track, it’s complex and layered.
Now ‘On Your Own’ may sound at times like a mega fast metal track, it isn’t. For you see there are hints of the darkness of Sabbath and of something else I can’t quite put my finger on. It has hints of the off the wallness of John’s Children (the band that Marc Bolan was in in his early career), and all sorts of what I’m going to call the crazy end of my music collection. Wow, oh fucking wow.
‘Behind Those Eyes’ takes the sound of T-Rex, and seasons it madly with the sound of warped acid art rock. That is until it develops into something more guitar rock with an amazing guitar solo that runs through it. And somehow, brilliantly somehow, they manage to make this song horribly earwormy. Through all the random guitar sounds there’s a tune that runs through it.
The EP closer – ‘Constant Fear’ – opens with an edgy anxiety inducing nagging guitar, and to put it simply becomes dark. Scant relief is provided by a chorus that is frankl singalong, air punching joy. It pounds its way into your brain like a hammer.
And look, the playing, the vocals on these songs is faultless. There is something very special indeed about a band that manages to tread the fine line between total sonic chaos and controlled power. The tracks threaten to go over the edge but pull, wonderful, back at the very last moment possible. And the playing on this EP is worth really listening to because the individual playing is amazing.
Echoviolet have made an EP that I can only describing as amazing. This has gone straight into my top 10 releases of the year. It’s damn near as perfect as you could get. You like heavy guitar music, this is definitely one for you. Play loud enough to wake the neighbours.
