EP Review: Brother

The new EP from Hault, Brother, kicks off with a massive amount of energy! Track one Red Dress is all about distorted gats, over a fast, thick drum line at something like 180BPM which just oozes that thrashy feel that all of us rock fans love. It’s probably one of the most simple and effective tunes I’ve heard to date. There isn’t anything particularly flashy about it, it just sounds damn good. Vocals are melodic, but distorted and gravelly which just finishes off that thrashy feel. Try on some of The Datsuns’ early stuff for style.

Set You Free follows on from Red Dress, and it’s a bit slower and a bit more groovy. Still with the same purposefully messy guitar tone, and strong vocals, and really straight cut drum timing give it a real Kings Of Leon sound. I have to say; the vocals are probably my favourite part of the recording. The vocal pitching is right on point.

Hesitate slows it down even further. This is such a cool guitar line. I can’t help but to think of Faith No More or Primus with how riffy it sounds. Those vocals weave their way through this tune in good style and form. The only thing I would probably suggest is maybe the drums sound a little over-compressed. It sounds like they are in a very muffled room, where personally I think all of the songs on the EP would sound huge if the drums had the grand large hall sound and space around them.

Obsession (Stoner Song) is dark, very dark with super dissonant chords, soaring vocals and a very cool guitar riff line. This is definitely not a ‘feel good’ song. This one has got edge. The sort of song you listen to before an epic night of debauchery. You can take that to mean whatever you like. This one is probably my favourite track of the EP.

The title track from the EP is Brother. Brother is a really cool combination of all the songs above all hooked together into a more intricate song which has a lot more space and lets the vocals breathe some more. Musically I really appreciated this tune, I feel like this has probably taken Hault a fair amount of time to get the sound they desired.

All in all, a great EP. My only real criticism is that I feel everything sounds a touch muffled, and for their style, it probably would benefit from the recording sound of a big studio with plenty of open space, but to be fair, that shouldn’t detract from how good this EP is. Do yourself a favour and check it out if you are a fan of thrashy, grungey, rock.