London four piece Zephyr are not just barely out of their teens, they are also in their infancy as a band and here they are with their debut EP An Odyssey For The Living. We can say straight away this is a very impressive debut. Usually it takes a band a few releases to find their feet but Zephyr have found their feet, got their socks on and bought a sweet pair of trainers to boot.
The EP is metal-core 101 but it is done very well. Opener ‘Familiar Ghost’ shows some rather tech-metal guitar work which adds a little tech-metal to the usual mix of metal and death-core. ‘Little Lamplight‘ adds some more electronic flourishes to proceedings which help stop the band becoming just another band playing the same sort of thing in a tired genre.
On both the former songs and what follows Zephyr show a writing intelligence beyond their years. Sure they wear their influences on their sleeves but their is enough originality on show here to stop them from becoming just another carbon copy. Sure the band has heaviness but it has been dome in a clever enough way for it not to become just a wall of distortion. Not wanting to piss the band off but their are parts here that show the band have some more pop sensibilities (trust us that is a compliment). The melodic chorus part on ‘Cloud Spires’ is a perfect showing of this.
‘Gemini’ is maybe the most curious song on the EP. Featuring Julian Rodriguez (not 100% but we believe this may be the guitarist for US Metalcore band Elitist), it is by far the most melodic track on here but just doesn’t have the same impact and urgency as the others. ‘Black Luster’ brings it back though just in time for the close.
All in all Zephyr should be applauded for creating such a professional and mature sounding debut. We can only see them moving forwards and steadily upwards. they have a sound, sure they don’t change from the formula they use often but like we said, this is a debut EP so it doesn’t have time to get boring. It would be interesting to see if this is still the case once the band get to releasing an full length. These five tracks though work perfectly as a taster and we look forward to seeing where the band go next as they have all the tools there to do something truly interesting and special in a genre that is seriously stuck in a rut.
