JO BELOW – NEW WORLDS

By RingMaster Review on April 11, 2024 • ( 0 )

Finland’s JO BELOW is a band that we have never quite found the moment to give proper attention to within the flood like landscape of new submissions every year. The release of New Worlds though has ensured that mistake will be not repeated with its collection of fiery contagion and imagination cured rock songs soon proving a compelling proposition.

Formed in 2017, JO BELOW consists of vocalist Johanna Kari, guitarist Roni Seppänen, bassist Jonne Lindqvist, and drummer Olli Vartiainen. Helsinki based, the quartet cast a melodic hard rock seeded sound that readily embraces a host of other styles and flavours within its creative adventure and no more strikingly than within their new EP.

New Worlds is the band’s third EP following By The Rules of 2020 and its successor No Control which came out less than a year later. Certainly that pair of releases shared ear grabbing and inventively dextrous proposals and drew eager praise but now find themselves highly eclipsed by the band’s latest offering. Fresh winds of creatively and imagination blow across its five-track landscape, each song a celebration of melodic rock enterprise with an emotive roar that exposes even more of the heart at the core of their songwriting and creative adventure.

The release opens with Broken Promises and a melodic coaxing of guitar that instantly had ears and appetite paying eager attention. A Southern rock breeze warms the air as the song reveals more of its presence, an ongoing invitation soon empowered by Hari’s magnetic tones. The song almost teases the listener with its gentle but encouraging start, subsequently pulling them into a heated wind of sound and enterprise that rhythms and guitar continue to stoke with infectious relish and creative temptation. That Southern bred air also grows as Kari’s vocals and the band’s imagination captivate as arcane carnival hues and fiery endeavour come to the adventure.

It is a superb start and keenly backed by the following Forever Mine and its classic but again southern kissed rock saunter. Grunge and alt rock essences also align in its spiral like body of sound, the guitars providing a vining of sonic dexterity as Kari roars with aggressive prowess and passion. As the first song, it is also instinctively catchy and soon determined our swing and involvement before Who Are You steps forward to grip favourite track honours. An acoustic guitar beckoning immediately had ears hooked and with keener intent once Kari’s melodic tones add to the siren pull of its beginnings. In time, a pop punk breeze unites with the emerging rock breeding of the track but equally an orchestral beauty as an impassioned fire brews, it all making for one stunning proposal.

The hard tasking of following the EP’s major peak goes to Life On The Line, the song taking it in its stride while sharing classic rock inclinations in collusion with the band’s pop rock prowess. A roar in breath, emotion and contagion, the song quickly and firmly hit the spot before making way for the shadows roaming exploration of The Unknown. As rhythms prowl, guitars send flames across the track’s crepuscular skies, all the while Kari sharing the heart bred contemplation of the song. It is another moment best described as a fire of a song, an atmospherically intense encounter where sonic flames are licking the air and a temptation of imagination is drawn in its enterprise while rhythms continue to manipulatively stroll across what is a rather fine end to one ear enthralling and spirit enlivening encounter.

If JO BELOW, like for us, has previously escaped your melodic rock cured attention this is the time to change destiny and welcome one of the year’s most highly enjoyable and rousing offerings so far.

New Worlds is out now via Inverse Records; available @ https://jobelow.bandcamp.com/album/new-worlds