Sunday 30 September 2012

Grown By Earth - Havens EP


One of the many positives about social media is how it can help unsigned bands to spread their music far and wide. Of Course, it's been that way for a while on the Internet, but I still get blown away when a band contacts me. This was the case with Swedish hardcore band Grown By Earth. Their drummer Edvin send me a link to their latest EP Havens, available through Bandcamp and asked me to check it out.

Grown By Earth formed in 2011and Havens is their first EP, which was released in August. They do have another song on Bandcamp called La Vie, but this is their first actual release. Grown By Earth are a trio, also featuring Emil on vocals and guitar, as well as Marcus on bass. Earlier this year, Grown By Earth went on tour with fellow Swedish band Alenah, who have also been featured no my blog in the past and previously, they have played with No Omega, so they have a habit of playing with kick ass bands.

Tracklisting:-

1. One And Others
2. A Weightless Year
3. Blight
4. Misguided
5. The White Lady and He


Havens is very much in the vein of hardcore that's coming from Sweden at the moment. Well produced, but with enough bite to still sound authentic and is played by young bands, who display plenty of skill, emotion and enthusiasm. Grown By Earth certainly possesses all three. Their blend of hardcore is not formulaic. It contains plenty of twists and turns, instrumental textures and Emil's vocals are certainly passionate. They also keep their songs to a minimum length. Opener, One And Others provides an introduction to where these guys are coming from, but tempers the brutality in favour of setting a scene and building atmosphere.

A Weightless Year sounds more ferocious from the off. The caustic screams and powerful musicianship help to set the stall, only interjected by a nicely placed introspective passage, which shows off Grown By Earth's knack for song writing. Blight sounds initially like a more traditional song, with a good punk inspired structure, danceable riffs and spoken word vocals, which flow into screams and nice emo inspired instrumentation, very effortlessly. It seems criminal to me that Grown By Earth have not garnered more attention than they have so far. I mean, I know Sweden and Scandinavia in general has a booming music scene, but there's plenty here to draw in a global following.

Misguided, throws out a surprising thrash overtone in its immediate intro, before launching back into the bands own brand of hardcore madness. Off-Kilter and subtle in equal measure, they keep the ideas flowing and the music blasting, refusing to hammer home their point with copious mosh parts. Before you know it, your heralding the low-fi, garage rock inspired guitar of The White Lady And He. The subtle melody in the riffs again showing they have a punkier edge. The use of their native tongue during the song actually makes it sound more ferocious and makes it standout. It's the longest song on the EP and it sounds bigger, thanks to the ideas used. The audible nature of Emi's screams also make it a pleasurable listen, as you're not scrambling to try and make out what is being said.

Havens is over all too quickly. It's at times abrasive and claustrophobic but it also heralds a certain euphoric charm, which leaves its mark. All I can say is, more please!

You can listen to and download Havens for free at Grown By Earth's bandcamp page below:-


Grown By Earth can also be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/grownbyearth.

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