Blind Ambitions are another British band carving a name for themselves, live across the UK. The Canterbury based melodic hardcore band formed in mid 2010 and released this self titled EP shortly afterwards.
First track outlook, starts with an instrumental build up of off kilter guitar before
building up into the first taste of the bands melodic hardcore. The growls of BA'svocalist are low, which gives them an extra sense of brutality. They mix between
angular and clean riffs to add subtle variation to the music. Borders and Let go both start off with a more immediate pace, with a rhythm section of bruising proportions
The band use breakdowns in their songs but only to add to them. In borders, the pace switches between galloping riffs and slower breakdowns. The band also introduces clean vocals into the mix and the use of gang vocals near the end add to the overall feel of a song which could be their rallying cry. Let go also includes some good guitar effects that show the bands willingness to experiment and the sample brings the song to a peaceful end. In headway, the band incorporate some good, punkier riffs into the song. Still the vocals
remain low and the band refuse to add too many breakdowns to the music. When they do, they are again only used for short times and are peppered with melodic guitar/vocals which give them a more creative edge. This is the longest song on the EP, but the guys cram enough subtle ideas into it to keep it interesting. The music takes on a more euphoric form
towards the end of the track with an elongated instrumental section that fades out into the EP's final song. Final song Strong hearts, Is from their 2010 demo. It's probably the most brutal track on the EP. It's a relentless battering of hardcore but with an added something
that I can't put my finger on. The variation and different rhythms and structures used keep things interesting. It shows their ability to create uplifting and clever melodic hardcore.
Overall it's a very promising EP. It shows a band who are very forward thinking in their approach to melodic hardcore and their willingness to experiment with subtle effects and time signature should see them operate above the pack.
If you want to listen to the BA's EP, it's available for streaming on their bandcamp page at http://blindambitions.bandcamp.com/. It's also been posted here below for you to listen to.
The guys were kind enough to answer some questions for me as well:-
What are you're influences, musical or otherwise?
I suppose we were all drawn into the band and the style we play
because we were fans of melodic heavy stuff so the simple answer would
be to list the bands that started the modern wave of melodic
metal/hardcore like It Prevails and Misery Signals... but it's a lot
more complicated than than that. As a group and as individuals our
favourite bands include Transit, Mono, Title Fight, Verse, Animals as
Leaders, Norma Jean, Hundredth, King Conquer; I could list bands for
hours but the point is a lot of our influence comes from outside of
the obvious.
You're playing some shows with another Stay Ahead featured band,
Almost Failed. How did they come about?
They got in contact with one of our good friends who also happens to
be a booking agent and we tried to help sort some of their UK dates.
We played 2 shows with them while they were over here and they were
really awesome guys and their music is sweeeeet, go check out the
track "Humans".
What is your local scene like?
For our kind of stuff and a lot of the metal/hardcore sub-genres it
can be very hit and miss but with the help from an awesome dude called
Jay it's steadily starting to build it's self up! The main City in our
area, Canterbury, had a really good scene going about a year ago but
it got shut down because of our country's idiotic music licensing laws
and Dubstep, fuck that shit.
What do you think about the state metal/ hardcore at the moment in the UK?
Fairly good I suppose, there's a lot of really good bands that have
emerged in the last couple of years. At the same time though I'm a bit
fearful that the amount of copy cat bands are over saturating the
scene and that people are gunna get bored of going to shows with 5 of
the same bands under different names but hopefully we'll start seeing
a bit more diversity at shows.
What bands have you been listening to recently?
Lot's of Transit as always (you can never listen to too much transit),
really getting into The Effort, Hundredths new album is near
perfection, and I know our drummer has been listening to shit club
tunes written in triplets as he's a buffoon.
Which bands from your local scene should we check out?
Cry Wolf: Rubicon fuelled fastcore- www.facebook.com/crywolfuk
Chronos: postman pat themed post metal- www.facebook.com/chronosuk
Alaska: dark hardcore- www.facebook.com/alaskahc
Call of the Search: punk rock- www.facebookcalloffthesearch
Roots: postman pat themed emo stuff- www.facebook.com/rootsuk
Take Courage: melodic hardcore/punk- www.facebook.com/takecourageuk
Go listen to ALL of those!
You can also check out Blind Ambitions on their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/blindambitionsuk. So what are you waiting for!
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