Monday 27 February 2012

Hildamay - We Loved, We Lost


I interviewed Hildamay not so long ago on my blog, so here's the review of their EP We Loved, We Lost to go with it.

Hildamay have been knocking around since 2008. They're from Sidcup in Kent and make up part of the brilliant A Wolf At Your Door roster. They are one of a long line of very promising bands, that are coming up from the UK underground at the moment.


Immediately the punky overtones are obvious. Alexisonfire come to mind when listening to the screams of their vocalist. The music is a blend of hardcore and British rock. It's frenetic and kind of reminds me of some of the early Visible Noise bands. The music has that great melodic vibe, with a nod to garage punk of old. The guitars are fuzzy in places but keep that melodic sound. The production seems to keep that old-school rock sound. It's clear and concise, but also gives the music a bit of attitude and bite.

There are some nice introspective passages throughout this EP, such as in second track - Delicate. I like the vocals at the start of third song, By Your Side. It reminds me of when I first discovered bands like At-The Drive In and Sparta. The great melodic, post-hardcore overtones that those bands brought to the table are on show throughout this record. The title track starts with a nice clean guitar intro, underpinned by great drum rhythms, in a song that brings the mood down to a more reflective one, with the pace and instrumentation being less immediate. There are some really good vocal harmonies in the song as well.  It's only towards the end of the song that those screams reappear, with an outward blast of emotion.

A Wolf At Your Door seems to have a great knack of picking out top quality acts and giving them the leg up they need. Hildamay are definitely holding down a good UK sound and not taking on to many US influences within their music. It's good to see bands using an original, homegrown sound, and even though I've compared them to a few US bands in this review, I still believe they are one of the most original sounding bands I've heard in a while, who play this style of music. Take penultimate track In Your Eyes for instance, it starts with a great poppy guitar intro, before kicking in some good gruff, punk inspired vocals. Their use of melody is great throughout the record and marks them out as ones too watch, as they could bridge the gap between the mainstream and the underground before you know it.

Make sure you check out this EP. You can hear the song Parachutes and watch the video for the song Delicate, via their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/hildamay 
and if you like what you hear, you can buy the album via http://www.wolfatyourdoor.com/shop.

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