Album Review: Deers - EP1

It may evade many, but the city of Norwich is actually home to a very exciting and varied rock scene. One of these bands goes by the name of Deers who refreshingly decided to go against the decidedly unoriginal preceding "The". Their exciting blend of alternative rock, prog, post-rock and emo (to cite a few) is showcased on their recently released 'EP1'.

'MTS' opens with its soft Foals-esque atmospheric work and some truly sensational vocal work. The unintruding layering of instruments in the mellower sections delivers a great blend of emotion that the band are sure to contrast with Biffy Clyresque movements towards "wall of sound" type delivery. However, a lot of the flavour here is transported by the quality of the vocal harmonies and how they transport the listener musically and lyrically.

'Dolphins' enters palm-muted Brand New territory and highlights some of the heavier edges of the band with driving angular-guitar leads and shouted choruses. The mid-section comes even closer to Jesse Lacey territory, in a totally good way, when a layering of vocals soars amidst a chaos of instruments. Unfortunately, the mixing in 'A Moment Of Weakness' lets the band down a little in the most-distorted sections of the song, although it still delivers a healthy dose of emotion in and around soft-heavy variations.

Finally, 'I'm Sorry' is a tale of two parts. The first is a borderline repetitive arpeggio-laden body of sound that's confidently driven by some great lyrics while the second is a more consistent build-up that culminates in crashing cymbals and mathy guitar licks. It is fair to say that as far as first releases go, 'EP1' is a more than decent baring of teeth. Deers write exciting music that manages to walk a fine line between all the genres they incorporate, and when you can deliver songs like 'MTS', then you can forgive the parts where it doesn't quite come together.

4/5

'EP1' by Deers is available as a free download on Bandcamp.

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James Berclaz-Lewis