Londoners Zephyr describe themselves as progressive metal but on the first spin of their debut EP, ‘An Odyssey For The Living’, there’s nothing immediately progressive about it. It’s by no means regressive on the flipside but what we have here is meat and potatoes metalcore. The likes of which has been seen and heard hundreds of times within this most enduring of sub-genres.

All the elements are there. Scattergun riffs (with obligatory skip effects), impassioned vocals and breakneck drumming but whilst the 4 piece are perfectly competent, the songs themselves never go anywhere new or different. ‘Cloud Spires’ is all bluster and aggression and blows about with an emotionally driven guitar lead but at times the lead disappears and sounds like a separate song playing overlaid on top of the base track.

There are keyboards and electronics littered throughout the record (the progressive element perhaps?), but it’s rare that they actually add anything to the song other than meagre asides, which is a shame really as used properly there could be something in the plan. It’s be unfair to bash Zephyr on this record alone as it’s their debut, and they’re clearly good musicians but to enter metalcore this late in the game, you need to be able to make yourself heard straight away. As it stands Zephyr will struggle to be heard amongst the maelstrom but there’s evidence they might be able to shout louder in future.

2/5

‘An Odyssey For The Living’ EP by Zephyr is released on October 9th.

Zephyr links: Facebook|Twitter

Words by Rob Fearnley.