Dead Behind The Scenes: The Black EP

Well, if you have a White EP, why not follow it up with a Black one? With Italy's Dead Behind The Scenes, that's the level of inspiration we're dealing with, the first of these two short blasts one of the least inspired offerings of last year. Thankfully, while hardly a mighty blow to the sonic stomach, the six tracks served up this time represent something of a step forward – although it would hardly have been possible to stumble back.

The intention appears to be to head towards a bombastic Muse like pomp and yet with an annoying guitar tone and tame riffs, we're actually left with an indie rock whine. With Dave Bosetti's vocals a nasally annoyance, he certainly doesn't raise the excitement levels, while his more considered approach on the otherwise decent "Mr. Paranoia" comes close to scuppering this EP's best offering. The stop-start riff of "Empty Skies" does almost grab the attention, but with Dead Behind The Scenes' desire to repeat melody lines and vocal grabs over and over, it's not one that stands up well to continuous scrutiny. "Living On My Own" adds a nursery rhyme like to and fro, completely undoing what's come before, although the instrumental "Etius" does illustrate that DBTS do, surprisingly, possess an otherwise hidden panache in the arrangement department; a loosely classical piece proving an interesting departure. It's a shame it's only just over a minute long, although building slowly into the aforementioned "Mr. Paranoia" things suddenly take a turn for the better, the gentle sway tempering the vocal issues somewhat (although not enough) and showing that this lot can do poised and passionate when they stop pouring faux angst over everything they do. Unfortunately "Another Valentine" and "A.T.M. (All These Memories)" both head straight back into the tame riff and repeat of the EP's earlier outings and while neither are particularly offensive, neither do they provide enough intrigue to truly excite in any shape or form.

There are occasional steps in the right direction on the Black EP and yet, while this second short outing from Dead Behind The Scenes is a marked improvement on what came before, one decent full track and a good, if short, instrumental out of six efforts is hardly reason to celebrate.

Track Listing
1. Empty Skies
2. Living on My Own
3. Etius
4. Mr. Paranoia
5. Another Valentine
6. A.T.M. (All These Memories)

Added: August 5th 2017
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Dead Behind The Scenes on Facebook
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Language: english

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