Saturday 3 December 2011

Fifth Period - There's no Wonderland, Alice EP


Youth is the future in everything nowadays, and that saying is true when it comes to metal. Without kids listening to bands. picking up instruments, going to shows and setting up bands themselves, we wouldn't bee where we are today. The global metal scene is getting stronger and stronger, with cult bands reforming and new bands appearing and growing.

Fifth Period are the second band I have written about who reside is Spain. These guys are from the Castellon area and formed about two years ago. These guys are really ambitious, and at ages ranging from 16-19 years old, they have time on their side. They have already released the EP that I'm reviewing here this year, but they've toured Spain and are planning to record again next year.

Fifth Period are Lamberto Sanchez on vocals and guitar, Ruben Zafra on vocals and lead guitar,  Manel Oliver on vocals, Carlos Caro on bass, Alex Soliva on keys/synths and Pedro Sanchez on drum.


The EP starts with an instrumental intro, that starts with strings before the band kick
in with an angry breakdown, heavy section and some cool, clean guitar riffs.
The EP proper kicks in with second track The Hopes You Broke. They fill the
track with raspy screams and plenty of big instrumentation. Their rhythm section
works overtime and there are clearly lots of influence in their music. The vocals switched between higher pitched raspy screams and lower death-metal inspired growls. The clean guitar melodies sound very different, they almost remind me of an 80s American soap theme, but in a good way!. The title track builds with dramatic piano and then crunching guitar and drums. The synths add a texture to their sound, a modern edge that will help the band appeal to a wider audience, while keeping their feet firmly rooted in the genre. The song finishes the way it began, with strings and piano leading to a peaceful outro.

They use a lot of piano/strings in their songs, and a lot of it has more of a classical sound,
especially some of the strings section which sound almost like they're being played by Celtic warriors!. This is especially true on instrumental track A Ballad for None. The band get back into it on 5th track R.A.T.C.E.N Is Nectar Backwards. This song brings in more
musical variety again, this time with some clean singing and gang vocals. The band again include a load of different sounds and textures, which add good layers to their music. Fifth Period, introduce electronic effects into the song, which I personally like, and along with newer bands like Asking Alexandria and The Browning, are not afraid to experiment and push boundaries. Sixth track, Tides, begins with an awesome, dramatic guitar solo. Again they add more clean singing as well. Occasionally, there are hints of Coheed and Cambria and Enter Shikari in their music, such as the opening bars of penultimate track Beers, Cigars and Zombies Sometimes.

For a debut EP, it's ambitious and forward thinking. The band shows great potential for
the future and certainly have the chops to progress. The bands sound seems to get better with each song on this EP and is surely a sing of things to come!



I caught up with the guys from Fifth Period, to ask them some questions about their band and their scene. Here's what they had to say.

Tell us a bit about Fifth Period and how you guys formed?

Ruben (Guitar/Vox) Carlos (Bass) and me, Lamberto (Guitar/Vox), started playing together in garage around early 2007, it was not until 2008 endings when we decided to start a band, Alex (keyboards synth), and my brother Pedro (drums) joined the band in 2008 endings and we didn't find Manel (Screams) until February 2009 when we finally completed the lineup with ages between 14 and 17 years old.

What music have you been listening to lately?

We are really open minded in all kinds of music, we are listening to many music styles like electronic, classical, metal, rock, blues, jazz, hardcore...its really good to hear a lot of music to compose new songs.

You guys are from Castellon, which is quite a distance from a major city. What is the metal scene there?

We think we have a huge metal scene, there's a lot of great musicians in Castellon, and the historical music scene there in Castellon is amazing... we are so proud to be one of the bands that belong this scene.

What do you think about the metal scene in Spain at the moment?

Its growing in a breakneck way... years ago, you couldn't see any Spanish band supporting the biggest hardcore/metal bands in the world. Now, especially this year, you can usually see amazing shows or festivals announcements with great bands being supported by the Spanish scene bands... and this is really good for us!. We also want to say that this year has been a year with an amazing albums releases and label signings in our country and we think this is putting the bar higher. 

You toured Spain with Dutch band Wasted Bullet. How did that come about and how was it for you?

Yes, we toured with them for three days, they are an amazing band and great guys. while you are touring with a foreign band you can learn a lot of things to improve and grow as a band... and we have learned a lot, we are so grateful to this experience.
 
What has been the high point for you so far?

We think this year has been our best one in this short period as a band. We released our debut EP "There's No Wonderland, Alice" in March. In almost 4 months, it has more than 1000 downloads and we sold out all our copies in our Spanish tour between march and October. We also released our debut music video for the song R.A.T.C.E.N. Is Nectar Backwards at BlankTV and now we are working on a demo for 2012, its going to be recorded by Alberto Sales, a veteran in the metal local scene at Rocketes studios and its going to be produced by Josh Bodnar at Euphony Recordings (Skies of December last EP producer) so we are so excited to reach a higher level for 2012... so we are working on it.

What are your future plans for the band?

As we said, we are working on a demo and a good band presentation. So in 2012 we will be working to find a record label that bet for our music and a booking agency to have aids in booking shows. definitely we want to built the foundation of the pyramid.

Which bands from your area should people check out?

You should check our bros at No Frequency, The eleventh Failure, The Taste Of Tragedy, Between Four Walls, Farm School Holocaust, Clouds over Normandy, Puk*2 and Memories.

So, please make sure you go and check out Fifth Period and their EP on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/FifthPeriod and via Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/fifthperiodband.

Also, make sure you head over to Stay Ahead's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stay-Ahead. It'd be really cool to hear from people who visit my blog. Thanks.

No comments:

Post a Comment