Twin Atlantic bring something new and fresh to the crowded emo scene with the A Guidance From Colour EP. In a genre increasingly crowded with carbon-copy clones, it’s a real relief to hear Twin Atlantic breathe some life into the sound.
Twin Atlantic are plainly taking their cues from the more epic end of the spectrum, but they haven’t sacrificed melody on the altar of prog. The opening track on A Guidance From Colour, “Audience and Audio”, is a perfect example – full of soaring vocals and sky-wide guitars playing hooks as sharp as they are delicate. But it’s the rhythms that really set Twin Atlantic apart, with jagged staccato stop-start structures that draw the ear without sounding forced; an interesting contrast with the poppy melodies.
There’s another real stand-out aspect to Twin Atlantic – we’ve grown accustomed to emo bands being fronted by singers with nasal West Coast falsettos, even the ones from the UK, so it’s a real breath of fresh air to hear Sam McTrusty belting out his lyrics in an unashamedly Scots accent. Perhaps it’s partly due to the novelty value, but McTrusty sounds much more sincere as a result, and that’s a great asset. After hearing what feels like hundreds of identikit pop-punk acts, it takes something special for an emo band to capture my interest; Twin Atlantic have that something.
In addition to McTrusty’s voice, they’ve got a good sound – contemporary but distinctive. The glassy guitar melodies and delay-drenched tapping riffs remind me of Circa Survive, but the song structures are more immediate. Second guitarist Barry McKenna puts down his guitar and exchanges it for a cello on the final eponymous track of the record, which is another string to their bow – but it’ll take an album length release before we get to see if it’s merely a gimmick or an integral part of the Twin Atlantic creative process.
I haven’t found myself saying this about many emo bands lately, but I have a genuine interest in hearing more from Twin Atlantic. If the A Guidance From Colour EP is a taster of things to come, then Scotland may well have raised a home-grown act that can take the Yanks on at their own game with a good chance of winning.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: A Guidance From Colour, emo, pop-punk, prog, Twin Atlantic
