Album Review: The Will - The Will EP

Southern California’s The Will bring their latest offering, a self-titled EP, to the party promising to deliver a raw rock record and on this front they deliver. Lead singer Lucas Fackler has the sort of voice one can only develop after years of swigging bourbon and smoking 40 a day, the music is equally as fitting with dirty distorted guitar tones and some filthy bass lines. This is the music of biker bars and garages. Fans of grunge, stoner rock and some good old fashioned rock will find something to their tastes here. In fact the times when the band sound most devoid of ideas is when they are trying something slightly different. Fackler’s voice does not lend itself to doing ‘delicate’ songs and the attempt during “A Million Times” to do this fall flat and sound oddly out of place.

The EP is ultimately pretty disappointing however, the derivative “Whiskey” is an ode to the liquor, a song that is as stereotypical as you could possibly get for a “raw rock band” as their press-sheet labels them. It is disappointing that they fall into this trap because they display moments when they seem capable of doing more with their sound. The two best songs on the album: “Broken Dreams” and “Keep Your Distance” only serve to highlight what the EP could have been, the latter especially standing out in comparison to the other far weaker tracks. Fackler’s vocals are markedly improved on “Keep Your Distance” and the band displays a willingness to move away from what, over the course of the EP, seems to be their signature sound but which, for the sake of their musical careers, I hope they do not stick with. Ironically it is during this sound that they are most easily comparable to their peers, at least in favourable ways.

Chances are that if you hear the EP opener “The Lottery” and dislike it then you will probably dislike the whole EP, their sound is easily summed up and it is clear why their press sheet used the word “raw” to describe their sound 3 time in little over 200 words. If you want an album to drink whiskey to, this very well may be the EP for you, but it, like the spirit, will probably leave you less than keen to try it again once you’ve finished the whole thing.

2/5

'The Will EP' by The Will is available now.

The Will on MySpace

Nick Robbins