The UK's 25 Yard Screamer have unleashed some pretty intense sounds on this brand new EP demo titled Blacklight. Comprised of mainly a near 20-minute title track, plus one short piece, the trio take their progressive rock and metal influences and combine them to create a powerful wall of sound here. The title track is a hard hitting mix of classic Rush, King Crimson, Korn, Marillion, and Mastodon, with plenty of intricate and muscular guitar riffs, pounding rhythms, and just enough atmospheric and proggy interludes to add variety. Math rock meets prog rock is a good way to describe their music. The lead vocals on this piece are very well done, and when the vocals do come in, the music takes on a mellow, almost ethereal and somber tone, bringing their progressive influences to the forefront (I detect a bit of modern Marillion here) a bit more. Although this lengthy epic is very adventurous and well executed, I'm wondering if they would have been better off separating it into two different pieces, as the opening instrumental section works well on its own as a progressive metal/math rock piece, and the more progressive and moody vocal section sounds like a totally separate song. Either way though, there's plenty of good stuff here, and lots of talent shown from the three band members Matt Clarke, Nick James, and Donal Owen. The short number "I'm Not Going Back" is an uptempo rocker, mixing modern hard rock styles with a little Rush guitar sound and Marillion type vocals.
I hear a lot of promise with 25 Yard Screamer, and it will be interesting to see if they can hook up with a producer and record label and put together a good 60 minutes of songs and get them out to the masses. Now that they have three demos available, they are starting to hone and perfect their style, and the future certainly looks bright based on the sounds contained on Blacklight.
Track Listing
1) Blacklight (19:21)
2) I'm Not Going Back (3:28)
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