There has been a bit of everything getting resuscitated this year, even shoegaze; and while Ivadell are most definitely looking forwards rather than back, their sound certainly owes a lot to the nineties.
Basically, what you get here is a hefty dose of grungy riffing dotted around delicate indie bliss with a downbeat vocal and the occasional wall of sound, and for the most part it works. ‘Temporary Sound’ and ‘Simplify’ both being prime examples, while they up the tempo for the rockier sounding ‘Loch Ness’; awful chorus mind!
‘Rearrange’ and ‘Maybe Tomorrow both add a bit of dreaminess to the big riff vibe, which ‘Passing On’ and ‘Fight or Flight’ take one step further, dispensing totally with the riffage, although they just drift around without really going anywhere. Equally rudderless is the slow grinding sinister sound of ‘Antlion’, though it might just pummel you into submission through repetitiveness.
‘Unknown Divide’ with its upbeat poppiness and the twists and turns of ‘You’re Fire’ do, however, show what they are capable of when they put their minds to it, both succeeding in showing a bit of versatility to the band’s sound and helping make the overall impression an enjoyable one.
3/5
‘Maybe Tomorrow’ by Ivadell is out now on Broken Circles.
Ivadell links: Website|Facebook|Twitter
Words by Edward Layland (@EdwardLayland)
