Shared EP from three promising British Metal groups reaps rewards
Sharing an E.P. with two other bands could prove to be a dangerous exercise in confusing the public at large as to your own individual traits- not so here. Whilst all three undoubtedly share similarities, namely the ability to deliver skull-rattling riffs whilst maintaining a semblance of melody, they are all very much their own band.
Hailing from North-East England five piece The Casino Brawl are probably the most approachable of the three, with a penchant for mixing softer vocals in between the fury. 'The Regression', for example, comes across as a Cemetery Gates for the Emo generation, with its soft and disarming intro dissipated by a machine gun riff and throat shredding scream.
Elias Last Day, by contrast, are a far heavier outfit, a more straight up ‘Metal’ band. With touches of Slipknot, Damage Plan and Isis, the vocals are deeper, and the music murkier. Which is not to accuse them of being dirge peddlers. This is refined, balls to the floor, fist in the air, heavy metal.
First Signs Of Frost, meanwhile, sit somewhere in between the two. The riffs are old school, Pantera style, but the vocals flit between a strangled yelp, and a croon reminiscent of Fair To Midland’s Darroh Suderoth. They know how to pummel out a tune but are equally happy slowing things down to let the lyrics come to the forefront.
As a whole the EP avoids the pitfalls of too many different styles competing with one another, and yet each band is distinguishable from the next. On this evidence it’d be worth hearing a full EP from any of them.