Album Review: The Great Valley - Ruthless

Brothers Louis and Nick Matos have been exposed to music for most of their life. With their mother being a music teacher and their father being a drummer, it's hereditary. Despite their lineup consisting of only two people and perhaps probably being an awkward set up if they were to perform live unless they were to hire touring musicians, the great valley manage to create an album that sonically sounds like a full band all on the same wavelength.

The opener 'Yesterday' reflects on the brothers past and the struggles that they went through to get to where they are now. With Louis exclaiming, "We're here after all those dreadful years" during the chorus. 'Dreamer' has a really soft vocal melody which completely counters the blistering guitar in the introduction, Louis' soft vocals strangely compliment Nick's harsh guitar strumming on top of Louis' arena sounding drum kit.

A demo of 'Me, Myself & Time' has been circulating the internet recently and the album version is a lot more polished and profound whilst 'Sweeter Side of Life' is a jangly guitar driven song written in the same vein as Fall Out Boy might have done on their last album before the chorus turns into a fast paced anthem complete with singalong 'Woahs'.

It's statements that are provoked during 'Like We Do' ("If you had a clue of all the shit we've been through with no one on our side, you'd probably feel like we do.") that differentiate this band from everyone else, they take The Dangerous Summer's method of writing more of a journal, to the brim with honest lyrics, rather than following a cheesey verse-chorus format and churning out horribly mediocre material and manage to combine it with personal accounts of their own.

Despite pushing the record back a week and despite being more of an EP than an actual album, The Great Valley manage to deliver something powerful and punchy. This band could easily be the next Dangerous Summer. 'Ruthless' is a perfect way to sum up what this album is, despite its tracklisting lacking a lot of tracks, the album is easily all killer, no filler.

5/5

'Ruthless' by The Great Valley is available now.

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George Gadd