unpeople “unpeople EP”

The debut EP from Brits unpeople is like getting a giant bowl of your favourite M&M’s and gorging yourself. It’s nutty, it’s sweet, its certainly colourful and if you just shove a handful in, all the different flavours whirl around in a metal equivalent of a sugar rush.

Opening track Waste has a stomping riff, rolling drums, chanting vocals and lush harmonies all over a crushing breakdown of a party anthem that should be the soundtrack to your summer.

Smother meanwhile, has a heavy duty riff that chuggs like a train with vocalist Jake Crawford’s scream of ‘I think I’m feeling the pressure’. The vocals are exquisite. While Crawford can hit high notes, his harmonies with bassist Meg Mash are insane. The groove from underneath so simple yet effective in ways that you find the music burrowing into your brain.

While the band mix influences from Deftones and Rueben thrown into the melting pot musically, the icing on the scrumptious cake is the vocal harmonies. Overthinking another example of how even with a heavy foundation, the vocals can make this a pop song you can be proud to play out loud.

It may only be a five track EP however being able to create five tracks of pure pop metal bliss is impressive. Each song has a brutal riff, angelic vocals, big enough hooks to catch a whale and content to provoke thoughts. Going Numb is a prime example of what is essentially is a nu-metal track – that breakdown tears your face off – but sounds like a 90’s pop song.

The epic EP closer – at four minutes and seventeen seconds an indication of how quickly these songs catch you – Moon Baboon I don’t even know how to describe. Is it punk, metal, emo or anything you think in between? The infectious drums matching the ‘keep smiling through your gritted teeth’ lyric.

However, it’s the line in that song of ‘I feel this shouldn’t be working’ that resonates, because yes it shouldn’t but the wildness of the EP, the anarchy, the foot stomping grooves, the harmonies all work like an expensive Swiss watch. This EP is wonderfully exhilarating, like a roller coaster at a fairground that you keep going back on. This EP is not a Waste.

EP Review By Iain McCallum