New Dilemma – Is Your Story Over

By RingMaster Review on July 16, 2020 • ( 0 )

With a lyrical prowess as potent and emotive as the sounds which wrap them, Florida outfit New Dilemma have introduced themselves to the wider world with the release of debut EP, Is Your Story Over. It is a band which is said to have made a strong impact on the Orlando music scene and listening to their six track release it is easy to hear why and expect a far broader and eager tide of new fans and attention to surge their way.

The band’s sound is another of those proposals which is bred on creative intensity and fuelled by diversity; every song within the EP soaked in drama and emotion whilst creating a tapestry of styles honed into New Dilemma individuality. It is a fusion which entangles nu and alternative metal with melodic rock to over simplify it but with industrial and electro rock essences and more besides just as bold within its enterprise, it is music which never settles for the obvious. Certainly familiarity aligns with originality across the release but it only adds to the rich temptation and persuasion surrounding ears with a firm strength of unpredictability in tow.

Is Your Story Over opens with Don’t Lose Control, a track featuring fellow Orlandoan, guitarist Bobby Keller. Its initial lure is draped in magnetism, electronics lacing sound and the quickly opening vocals of Joey Factor as bass and guitar paint their own intimation across the controlled but lively rhythms of drummer Ben Johnson. There is something of a Stabbing Westward/Gravity Kills feel to the song in some ways but already the distinct character of New Dilemma’s sound and creativity is clear and captivating by the twist and turn. The dirtier feel of Clyde Clark’s predacious bass is contrasted by the fiery flames cast by the guitar of Keller but united in the tantalising of ears and imagination.

The following Bury My Demons immediately has a more gnarly touch to its presence but equally reveals a crystalline radiance in its electronics which proceeds to collude across a song which again uses unpredictability as potently as contagion and variety in its vocal and musical enterprise. With Johnson’s beats a skittish gallop in its skilled manipulation, the song soon proved a favourite moment while No Going Back weaves a similar palette of textures into a melodically radiant and metallically tense trespass which incites the imagination as firmly as Factor’s words and tones; a whiff of bands like Skillet and Circle Of Dust only enriching the enjoyment.

Playing Victim is next up and immediately puts haunting intrigue and intimacy in the air, emotion wrapping every seductive breath and visceral snarl which shapes the increasingly fascinating encounter before the EP’s title track gallops in from a distance and twists and turns with metal and electro rock invention. The track is superb, persistently teasing with undefined familiarity yet only springing new and rousing enterprise upon ears. In one moment it prowls the psyche, almost predatory in its temptation and in another it is a haunting romance with a carnal underlining which has its own moment to enthral within the evolving cycles.

The release closes up with It’s Time To Move On which sees Florida based songstress/actress Chase Shellee guesting. From its opening riff cast grind on the senses to its vocal and electro steeped conspiring, attention was swiftly glued and tightly gripped as a virulent charge of sound and energy leads to an eruption of heat seeing Factor and Shellee united at its roaring heart. Once more the band leave expectations floundering as the song slips through shadow bearing calm and emotion haunted temptation to symphonic-esque beauty amidst feral metal virulence.

It is a thrilling end to a just as compelling and rousing release. Whether Is Your Story Over will spring the fullest attention upon New Dilemma time will tell but it will surely draw heavy waves of new fans, acclaim, and thick anticipation of what comes next.

Is Your Story Over is out now through Pavement Entertainment; available across most stores and @ https://www.pavementmusic.com/product/new-dilemma-is-your-story-over-cd/