Lincolnshire three piece, Blind Wives, seem intent on defying labelling by employing a musical style that pogos around between indie, alt rock and metal, and although there are recognisable elements very much to the fore, they manage to sound pretty individual. Which is definite progress on their rather generic sounding eponymous EP from 2013.

The band seem to have really developed their sound to include a number of different dimensions, lead off track ‘Fresh Doubts’ being a prime example. The opening angular sounding riff has a strong indie feel to it, yet the song moves around unpredictably through a variety of riffs and time changes, taking it into the rockier territory also inhabited by ‘Mendoza’, which has a definite transatlantic feel to it with its dirty guitar sound reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age.

After a couple of years of live work, guitarist/vocalist Luke Pickering seems to have gained some confidence and is not afraid to go downbeat, as on the brooding ‘Shots Fired’ with its wonderfully fuzzy sound to the guitar and its half arsed closing solo, which is in total contrast to the poppy opening of ‘Straitjacket’, though not to the dirt box sound of its ending.

Closing track ‘Trenchfoot’ is the most ambitious offering here, showcasing the band’s tight rhythm section and varied sound, which builds into an intense climax of hard packed riffing, which rounds things off nicely. Despite only being an EP, there is an interesting dynamic to the track order with the contrast between the songs proving highly effective.

Ok, so they are a young band and are by no means the finished article, but it’s nice to see a band experimenting and developing their sound and all told this is good progress from Blind Wives; let’s see where they take it from here.

3.5/5

‘Recovery Positions’ EP by Blind Wives is released on 10th August on Mountains of Records.

Blind Wives links: Website|Facebook|Twitter

Words by Edward Layland (@EdwardLayland)