Southfall – Awakening – EP Review

Source // Southfall

Southfall are a new five piece rock/metal band from the Midlands who played their first gig in May of last year and Awakening, a three track EP, is their debut release.

We may as well start with the negatives and get them out of the way. At only three tracks this EP is inevitably short and makes judging their capabilities all the more difficult. However, for the most part the music is of a high standard and we’re undoubtedly interested in hearing more of what these lads are capable of. The second issue is that two tracks, “Awakening” and “C4”, have a small amount of generic ‘growly’ vocals that are ten-a-penny these days and contribute little to the songs themselves.

Now that the slightly negative shite is dealt with it’s time to concentrate on the good stuff! Despite being a relatively new band Southfall come across as brash, confident and well aware of their capabilities. Vocalist Matt reminds us of someone else – but we’ll be damned if we can think of who it is at the minute – while Jay and Ryan are already a formidable guitar partnership at this early stage and throughout the three tracks on offer there are numerous examples of top notch, heavy but accessible, riffs and classy solos.

The highlight of Awakening is “Blurry”. A highly addictive tune, with a slightly 90’s feel to it, “Blurry” is built around a melodic vocal and punchy yet hummable guitar lines. The perfect song for rock radio stations, we expect this to be blasted out of rock clubs up and down the country….if the UK knows what’s good for it!

With Awakening, Southfall have stepped up to the plate at the first time of asking with three tracks of modern sounding, melodic metal. Being honest, there were initial misgivings due to those damn growly vocals right at the start –  that almost had us reaching for the stop button – but thankfully it was only for a moment or two. This is a young band who have a very bright future ahead of them if they can keep releasing music of this quality and get the right breaks.

Two thumbs up lads! 8/10