A Conscious Motion sees UK outfit Cove releasing their sophomore EP, a proposition announcing the Kent hailing quintet as one highly promising addition to the hardcore scene. Melodically inflamed, the 2016 formed band’s sound has a real sense of adventure to its character suggesting the potential of major uniqueness to come they continue to grow. As the new release shows, it is already a thoroughly enjoyable proposition from a band hungry to push themselves.
A Conscious Motion reflects on themes “such as the pain of loss and the challenges of soul-searching and acceptance” and features the band’s latest line-up of guitarists Pete Woolven and Ben Brazier, bassist Charlie Smith, drummer Jack Bowdery, and new vocalist Ben Shorten. The band linked up with Oz Craggs at Hidden Track Studios for the EP, reuniting with him once more for five tracks which has seen “a little piece of everyone in each song, something we didn’t have before and this has definitely broadened our sound.”
The EP opens with Coincide:Collide, a track which lures intrigue and increasingly keen attention from its first rhythmic tapping. Quickly guitars loom over that continuing bait, their tides of riffs and grooves dark and slightly portentous but wholly enticing. The quickly impressing tones of Shorten soon intensify its appeal, a Deftones-esque breath becoming tenser and more imposing as the track unleashes its roar. As mentioned, Cove is tagged as hardcore with an alternative bent but as the first song on the EP reveals, at times it is a far more flavoursome mix.
The EP’s best track is quickly followed by a just as compelling offering in Solis. From its first breath, ear gripping grooves work their bait, vocals a caustic alignment as rhythms pounce with aggressive tenacity. Harmonies and melodic flames add to its brewing temptation, punk scowling similarly infusing the adventurous tempest. As the first, it gives suggestion of a real appetite to push their boundaries, the band not content on just repeating the well-received but less individual exploits of their first release.
Recent single All I Believe is next, the song a blaze of sound and enterprise which as the first track begins with a mellow air over simmering discontent; a volatility subsequently erupting with voracious intensity and craft. Vocals again strike a rich engagement whilst grooves and a brooding bassline only add to the blossoming captivation. Though not connecting with personal tastes as quickly as its predecessors the senses bracing blaze of sound made a compelling persuasion as it grew to match their temptation.
The atmospheric instrumental of Host provides a dark calm for the imagination to play with before Reflect:Resolve closes things up with its incitement of wiry grooves, rhythmic tempting, and emotive vocal ferocity. It too makes for an alluring agitation if without quite reaching the heights of those before it, though at times the song tempts with a majestic touch which it never quite sustains across the whole of its nevertheless fully satisfying presence.
Cove has strived to find their own identity in sound with A Conscious Motion, to stand out from the crowd and though they have some way to be truly unique, the quintet has definitely found a new character which warrants keener attention. The EP is a potential ridden affair from a band moving in the right direction towards becoming a renowned integral part of the European hardcore scene; right now they are certainly one of its imaginative and enjoyable additions.
A Conscious Motion is out now through iTunes and other stores.
Upcoming Cove UK tour dates:
April: 15th – Bournemouth – Anvil | 16th – Guildford – Boileroom | 17th – Nottingham – Red Rooms | 18th – Manchester – Satans Hollow | 19th – Huddersfield – Parish | 20th – Glasgow – Garage Attic | 21st – Edinburgh – Opium | 22nd – Sheffield – Corporation | 24th – Birmingham – Flapper | 25th – Oxford – Cellar | 26th – Tunbridge Wells – Forum Basement | 27th – Bristol – Mothers Ruin | 28th – Bridgend – Hobos | 30th – London – Thousand Island
https://www.wearecove.com/ https://www.facebook.com/WeAreCove/ https://twitter.com/WEARECOVE
Pete RingMaster 27/03/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
The EP opens up with Was It All Worth It and straight away the track has attention hooked as a melody, with a mix of warmth and shadow in its character, wraps enticingly around ears. A rising storm of rhythms led by the feisty beats of Lewis Fife with the brooding rumble of James Carty’s bass alongside soon join the invitation, it all taking the listener into the turbulent yet catchy heart of the song where the guitar of Ben Brazier casts suggestive melodies and inventive hooks around his emotion flushed vocal squalls. It is a potent mix captivating from start to finish, melodic and post hardcore textures engaging each other in an arguably less than original but certainly potent way for a strong start to the release.
featuring in it and doing a stand up job.
How has the internet and social media impacted on the band to date? Do you see it as something destined to become a negative from a positive as the band grows and hopefully gets increasing success?
Building on the success of their debut EP, British melodic hardcore quintet, Create To Inspire, are poised to release its successor in the rousing shape of Home Is Where My Heart Dies. It is the band’s first offering since signing with Basick Records at the turn of the year; a pungent roar of emotion and imposing sound showing potent depths of invention and imagination beneath its impressing surface.
The EP opens up with History and immediately has ears under a rhythmic cosh with predatory riffs for company. Thereafter the song uncages a tide of hungry riffs amidst the vocal ire of Sean Midson, subsequently expanding and blossoming its catchy rhythms and melodic endeavour with every lyrical snarl and sonic scythe. The hefty swipes of drummer Luke Taylor continue to punctuate the track whilst inciting ears alongside the similarly intrusive tones of Dan Fuller’s bass. They also make a forceful impact on the senses whereas the imagination is held by Midson’s potent mix of attack and the web of enterprise cast by guitarists Jack Morris and Connor McLeod. The track is a potent start to the release; an ear grabbing proposal lining familiar hues and flavours with the band’s own stirring invention.
Barely Breathing is a carnal protagonist from its first moment, the hefty swings of drummer Daniel Berkes steering a ravenous horde of predacious riffs with lethal and gripping precision. Again a restraint is employed as the song grows into its creative skin, a mesh of aggression and varied flavours uniting in a web of anthemic and corrosive enterprise. Featuring William Alex Young of Clockwork, the track stomps, almost stalks the senses with a magnetic swagger and irritable nature, the chorus weaving its own rich contagion to match that bred through the barbarous rhythms of Woolven and Berkes. Arguable the track is not offering anything majorly new but it is one hellacious enjoyment which alone ensures Hiraeth are a firm fixture on our radar now, a persuasion backed by the just as pestilential and gripping Beside Me. Vocals roar, guitars conjure, and rhythms bombard as the band spins a tapestry of savagery and melodic temptation, harmonies flowing with the latter to equal success. The fusion of metal and melodic hardcore continues to engross and whip up a hungry appetite for its storm, Hiraeth in turn showing themselves to be one hellacious rock ‘n’ roll incitement.