Album Review: Falling Closer - The Sweet Release EP

There’s not many things you can get for free with the current economical climate, however, Falling Closer are offering just that, their new EP is available to download for nothing. Ideal, if the music is good, so, it this a musical bonus or just a file that’s going to take up space on your computer? I’d say it leans more towards the former.

‘The Sweet Release’ gets off to a full throttle start, with opener ‘The Snake In The Grass’ which reminded of a band I used to love, but I couldn’t put my finger on who, after a trawl through my CD collection I realised this band remind me a lot of ‘Emanuel’ which can only be a good thing (strangely enough, this is the only song that reminds me of Emanuel). It’s a great opener, and a good representation of what this band are about, the guitar sounds massive, the drums are pounding, and vocalist Chris has the perfect voice for a band like this. So far so good.

Next up is ‘The Bridge’ which makes a deal of saying that it features Jonny Craig, I hadn’t a clue who this was, after a quick search I found he used to be the singer in Dance Gavin Dance, this doesn’t mean much to me, but they seem to be pretty big, either way, back to Falling Closer, and this song again is good, nothing exceptional but a good enough song.

‘The Sweet Release’ is up next and it’s again, a good song, with all the dynamics in place, the vocals are a strong point, and I think it’s starting to become apparent, make this band as good as they are, don’t get me wrong, everything else is great, but the vocalist sounds as if he belongs in a band like this. There’s a cracking guitar solo on this song as well, which regained my attention as it was starting to slip.

‘Fight The Monster’ follows, and is definitely the highlight of the EP, it follows suit and sticks pretty close to the bands formula they have nailed on, but it has a chorus that really stands out, which I feel the other songs are lacking to an extent.

The next few song’s come along nicely, not straying too far from the bands token sound, and are impressive, without being exceptional. Safe to say though, if you like one of this bands songs, you are probably going to like them all.

The EP closes with ‘Through the Thick and the Thin’ which is more of the same, and leaves you satisfied with what you’ve heard and will have you wanting to hear more, without making you desperate for more though.

This is a solid release, and to the right people, will deliver just the band they want, and to others, it will be a half hour well spent. Either way, for free, this can’t be sniffed at, and is far from just a file taking up space on your computer.

3/5

The Sweet Release can be downloaded for free from the bands myspace: http://www.myspace.com/fallingcloser

Daniel Ferguson