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You know you are onto something special when a release makes an impressive first statement in its initial persuasion upon the ear and then just gets better and more potent with each subsequent encounter. Such is the case with Moving Forward Over The Next Financial Quarter, the new EP from UK alternative rock band Hello Lazarus. The first of three EPs scheduled for the year, the four track triumph is a scintillating and gloriously expressive ignition for the passions and the declaration of a band destined to stretch the lines for and reshape British melodic rock on this evidence.
From Bristol, the trio of Adam Hooper, Luke Taylor, and Sean Shirwan-Begie, creates songs which breed punk pop infectiousness from within a deep reservoir of finely sculpted melodic rock. The resulting sound is one which can wrap tender emotive arms or more hungry urgently driven confrontation around the ear and from the proof of the EP alone, has the imagination and power to bring a consistently enthralling and provocative experience with a diversity of unique rewards from across every second of their expansive ideas. Equally grabbing attention with their live show which has seen the band alongside the likes of The Xcerts, Tellison, Flood of Red, Tubelord, and Vessels, Hello Lazarus brings a fresh presence and creativity to the ear. Their Scylla Records released as mentioned first of three scheduled EPs, is the initial step of a massively suggestive promise of greater things for the band ahead. One which provokes the notion of a nationwide awareness waking up to the band from if not to this Jake Robbins (Natives, Sharks) produced release, somewhere along the line of the subsequent unveilings if they are anything like Moving Forward Over The Next Financial Quarter.
The EP opens up with new video single When In Rome, a song which boldly barges through the ear with a muscular bass snarl and 
crisp rhythms from within a gently abrasing rash of sharp guitar lashes. Once the excellent vocals step up with their expressive narrative things settle into a slightly restrained air with voice, harmonies, and the ever provocative bass sharing attention whilst the guitars and drums frame their potency. The wholly infectious chorus is excellent its contagion not borne from obvious and easy hooks but pure passion and invention, and instantly recruits the listener into its emotive charge and catchy stroll. Arguably there is nothing which alone makes a lingering capture of passion and memory, no richly barbed hook or element which stands out, but the song is just a whole of immensely seductive and deeply penetrating elements with a mutual depth of quality and excellence combining for that impacting and long lasting temptation. It is a striking and emotively inciting song which by itself gives all the reasons why the band is causing a stir.
The following Get An Axe brings sterner sinews into play from the intimidating drums and again deliciously grumpy basslines, for another insatiable melodic escapade of near virulent contagion and energy soaking enterprise. With a stronger punk lilt than its predecessor, the track is an incendiary recruitment drive for heart borne melodic expression and eager air igniting energy, all moulded and bred through thoughtfully crafted and imaginatively enhanced ingenuity. The song leaves breathlessness behind, it’s again hard to ignore or refuse lure to join its cause exploiting and feeding on the now full greed devouring the release and its enslaving rewards.
Stallions is a gentler temptress, the instantly consuming breeze of harmonies and cascading sonic elegance offering a warm hand whilst the bass adds its own shadows to temper the blaze of light elsewhere. It is a crystalline glow within the release, its shimmering sonic kisses outshining the prowling bass and senses tripping drums strikes yet never dousing the fire of the darker elements and the threatening to escape brew of feisty intensity. The track shows the range and invention of band and songwriting, as does in its individual way the closing I Am No Explorer. It is another emotively sculpted piece of beauty with corners of darkness adding their haunting temptation. It is a stunning song, and though maybe not the top personal favourite upon the EP it is undoubtedly the most involved and involving treat.
Moving Forward Over The Next Financial Quarter is an excellent instigator of the passions as well as thoughts and emotions, a release which suggests Hello Lazarus can be as essential as the likes of 30 Seconds To Mars, and Lower Than Atlantis, and even Biffy Clyro.
9/10
RingMaster 28/04/2013
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