QUARTERSHADE are a four-piece from Leicestershire. They’ve been around for four years and after two guitarists and two bass players they’ve managed to keep things under control long enough to record their debut 3-track EP ‘Machines To Live In’.
I’ll get straight to the point. The reason for liking this so much is the voice of Pete the lead singer on the first track ‘Swim’, particularly the opening quiet section before the panoramic sweep of the guitars kicks in to dispel the reverie his voice invokes. He sounds like a more fragile James Dean Bradfield and exposes a genuine sense of sweetly crushed naked emotion that holds you trance-like. ‘My hope will not disappoint you / My dreams will not fool me to sleep / My songs hold the precious keys too / Never hold you back from being / I’ll never lose you’ he sings and he means it.
It lasts for maybe a minute but it’s more than enough to show this band their potential and the need to value the precious vocal commodity around which to build their songs. The Brucie Bonus is that fact that the epic fire of the remainder of the song is as uplifting and dramatic as one could hope for given the impressive qualities of the singer. Musically I’m in mind of Biffy Clyro but with a greater sense of jubilation and spirit.
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‘Stay With Me’ and ‘Capetown’ are less revelatory but the latter still stages a grand swagger in the guitar work (like an early U2), making you relish the possibilities that a sympathetic and visionary producer could conjure up in the studio.
www.quartershade.com
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