With a reputation well on the rise, UK metallers Earthbound have just released their new EP, an encounter which is going to do their ascent up the metal ladder no harm at all. Four slabs of the band’s melodic death metal nurtured sound, Desolate swiftly grabbed attention and only proceeded to tighten its grip thereon in.
Hailing from Hitchin, Earthbound emerged in 2017 and soon lured interest with their debut EP, Endure a few months after. Originally a quartet, it was with the recruiting of guitarist John Stacy to stand alongside vocalist Tom Watson, guitarist/vocalist Louie Penfold, bassist Chris Stroud, and drummer Richard Shearing that something “clicked” within the band. An acclaimed appearance at Bloodstock Open Air Festival and playing support to Doyle and Countless Skies followed to enhance the word on the band and a sound which within Desolate devours the senses and ignites the imagination.
With the likes of Trivium, Iron Maiden, Arch Enemy, and Countless Skies declared as influences, Earthbound create a tempest borne out of death metal voracity meets melodic metalcore dexterity. It proves a compelling proposition within their new EP, each track adventurous in intent and accomplished in invention. It begins with Of Suffering, the track looming from the distance with open ferocity to quickly explode upon ears. Riffs and grooves invade as rhythms blitz the senses yet immediately there is an instinctive contagiousness which escalates the lure of attention. The raw throated squalls escaping Watson are just as potent a trespass as the sounds around them, the backing yells of Penfold as forcibly eager, but it is with the clean delivery of the former that the track truly ignites. Both sides to his presence provide strong quality but his melodic presence is especially striking. The song itself continues to harass and tempt as it too reveals an enterprise of varying flavours and textures across its dramatic landscape, the EP off to a powerful and impressive start.
Solitude follows with melodic enticement as its coaxing, its atmospheric breath soon welcoming another emotion rich clean delivery from Watson. Drama soon lines every note and the subsequent rally of rhythms before dark clouds intensify skies encroached by equally darkening sounds. From within more classic metal spiced threads of guitar emerge as keys float across the air of the song, its ground a motion of volatile endeavour. Toxic breath also infests the vocals as the track continues to expand and blossom, its landscape as unpredictable and imaginative and indeed magnetic as its predecessor’s.
Similarly Worlds Apart opens up with melodic radiance to the fore, vocals and guitars a warm invitation though shadows still lurk and eventually step forth as the mercurial climate of the track sparks with greater tempestuousness. Nevertheless, its melodic metal imagination fuels every twist and level of intensity before Remnants grips just as thick attention with its steely wires and invasive ruthlessness. It is a tempest of sound and craft which leaves no second void of persuasion and moment lacking the drama of enterprise. With a passage of atmospheric calm and emotive intimation like an irresistible oasis in an ever compelling storm, the track provides a powerful end to an equally striking release.
There are certainly moments and aspects which excite more than others within Desolate but from start to finish it only impressed, Earthbound living up to their reputation so far and laying seeds to a far greater level of plaudits ahead as they continue to grow and evolve.
Desolate is out now.
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Pete RingMaster 15/10/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
The great start continues through Chasing Hope, it instantly grabbing ears with force and adventure as melodic tendrils vine the song’s immediate trespass upon the senses. Again Cordioli’s vocals come with a harmonic croon as powerful as it is radiant against the heavier darker climate of sound. Milani’s classic metal nurtured vines spring across the track’s growing adventure, the song epitomising that mix of the recognisable and inescapably fresh within its compelling grooving and tenacious adventure.
The following Miracle Drug is equally as virulent in its catchiness and energetic hard rock cast dynamics if taking things down a gear gait wise. But a single gear it is as the track still flies from the speakers with zeal and enterprise before Off My Leash has the body bouncing with its contagiously predacious animation. Punk and grunge infest its metal lined rock bred swagger, another collusion of flavours which seeds something truly fresh and viral. Unexpected twists only add to its relentless and unbridled tempting.
Anatomy of a Lie follows the great start, even overshadowing it as it creates its own groove sculpted temptation, one again bred from ruinous fractions of intent and a blossoming of magnetic melodies and harmonic flames again led by Halas-Yeates’ kind side. It is a song which has grown and evolved since its first outing within a great video back in 2013 and another sign of the band’s hunger to grow and draw every ounce of their imagination to the fore. As all tracks, it is a fusion of flavours beyond the description we first gave you, a controlled but bold maelstrom of antipathy and warmth lighting the senses much as the tempest within next up I Spared Hundreds succeeds in. With electronic essences almost taunting ears from its shadows, the song is a carnal provocation with a relatively latent but openly glimpsed peace. Harmonies and keys temper the cancerous instincts surrounding them, while imagination is an increasingly riveting trait in the song as innocence and insanity mingle in the corners of its psychosis.
The EP starts with a predatory gripping of ears through Perfect Whore, nagging riffs a perpetual tempting as vocals and drums descend greedily on the senses. With the bass a more reserved but no less potent protagonist in the mix, grabbing its moment to grumble within breaks with toxic prowess, the track climbs over the senses and imagination like a serpent. The sonic tendrils of the guitar are as seductive as they are venomous, still flirting with virulence as hostile eruptions unite in a bruising tempest. The track is a superb start to the EP, death metal infused with slithers of other varied metal and noise induced invention.
2010 saw the release of debut album Tales From The Supermax, with its successor The Anomaly unleashed two years later. Now the band has uncaged the primal yet precisely sculpted ferocity of Under The Deep on the senses, its exploration that “of the deepest reaches of human madness. Not clinical madness, but simply the darkest regions of the soul and the blackest part of the human heart from a mind found to be socially functional, but is really way too far gone. And thus it seeks to explore what is underneath the deepest depth, hence no matter how deep you descend there’s always another layer that can be torn away.” As suggested earlier, physically and sonically it shows no mercy or restraint but lines and veins its hostility with a nest of writhing grooves and atmospherically wrapped melodies that not so much temper the tempest but give it fascinating substance and drama.
The quintet start it with Burned By Faith and an immediate vocal roar which backed by a wall of rhythms and riffs has ears bent back as in a wind tunnel whilst the senses cower. Without losing its raw intimidation and strength, the track twists into a vociferous stride driven by raging vocal roars, this in turn spawning a predacious and eager canter of musical hostility. Fearsome from the start, the rhythms of Lewis become more agitated and robust as the metalcore seeded tempest rages, they sparking jagged lines of riffs and caustic grooves within a lyrical look at the things people do in the name of religion. It is an intensive and attention grabbing launch by the album, one already showing signs of an invention which becomes increasingly pronounced in following tracks.