For a band who look like they have an average age of a mediocre bottle of Scotch they boast a sound well beyond there years.
As Daylight Fades are a five strong hardcore piece hailing from Glasgow and have just released their debut EP Anchor Lane.
First up is ‘Prepare For War’, which interludes us with drums and heavily produced guitar tones given as an insight of what is to come will try and resemble All That Remains or Of Mice And Men.
The track doesn’t give much away until about 50 seconds in and we are rewarded with brutal crushing riff and the harsh vocals of Jordan Barr who is capable of delivering strong vocals, which is a refreshing surprise from the swathes of hardcore bands out there who seem to think asphyxiation is all there is to it.
When we reach a chorus we are treated to a highly respectable effort but is spoiled by the tuning on the vocals, it would have benefited the sound if the tuning were used with scalpel-like precision instead of a cleaver.
In saying that there is a good sense of melody and all parts work, harmonising unison throughout, but the song ends on my on a pet hate of mine, the cliché fading out into nothing.
‘Enemies’ features some more elaborate guitar work and shows off drummer Gregor Gilmour as a proficient musician.
The chorus is easily the highlight in the song with a driving vocal melody that acts as a massive hook, while it’s good to hear the vocals untreated here; the song ends with some rather sloppy fade-out that’s a little disappointing but doesn’t spoil what is otherwise a another strong track.
‘I Can’t Breathe’ is the next track and shows us more of ‘s Daylight Fades’s strong songwriting skills, it does however suffer the most from reckless production and has it’s chorus spoiled by the heavily auto tuned vocals, making it sound more like Ke$ha than All That Remains.
‘Anchor Lane’ boasts more complex math-esq riffs as well as a super minimal breakdown, which work really well together.
The track does show maybe a hint of where As Daylight Fades want to go with their sound and would surely define them from other hardcore bands operating throughout the scene.
Anchor Lane is a strong effort boasting four well-crafted songs and with ‘Anchor Lane’ boasting a more individual sound there is good promise to see that ADF should progress from strength to strength in an already tough scene.
The EP does however suffer from poor production; countless audio glitches can be heard throughout the EP, as well as the unforgivable auto tuning have slightly spoiled what could have been a great EP.
Words: Euan Coe
