Vices: Thieves And Royalty

There are many bands out there these days who are trying to meld together styles and genres and Vices certainly fall squarely into that category. However to this duos credit there aren't that many acts trying to bring hardcore metal into the same album as alternative rock and while it may not always be the most straight forward marriage the end results are equally interesting and promising.

"Find A Way" opens up this EP that hurtles by in under 20 minutes with grinding riffs and tortured growls, which considering the picture of Dave Briggs and Ernest Wuethrich on the back of the cover suggests that Vices are an indie rock band, is quite an initial shock. However such is the convincing nature of the aggressive, punching guitars that any doubts soon fade away. As the alt. rock clean vocals and toned down riffs herald the arrival of "The Man I Used To Be", the more original nature of the band shines through, as I'm not sure many full force metal machines are also turning out slower melodic rock numbers of this fashion. That said though it isn't all plain sailing, with the more melodic moments not always being as convincing as the all out metal and when they are presented in the same song, as they are on "Thieves And Royalty" it can feel ever so slightly forced.

That said though, when Vices do just play a slow, heartfelt alternative rock track in the shape of "Slow Dancing In A Burning Room" there's no doubt that they could happily slot into Kerrang TV. However at the same time as many bands in that arena struggle to, they also would fail to stand out from the crowd. Things are beefed up again for closing track "Mind Games" where the growls once again team up with a more melodic delivery and as before the effect is decidedly more arresting and this time more organic. For my money, this is the type of thing that Vices should be concentrating on if they want to make a lasting impact on an extremely crowded music scene.

Thieves And Royalty isn't quite the finished article, but there are enough well formed ideas and the delivery is for the most part very skilful, suggesting that if they can be slightly more consistent, then big things may lie ahead for Vices.

Track Listing
1. Find A Way
2. The Man I Used To Be
3. Thieves And Royalty
4. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room
5. Mind Games

Added: April 7th 2011
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Vices MySpace
Hits: 2125
Language: english

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