Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today, we’ve been listening to the latest single from Attic Theory Featuring Kevin Martin (lead singer of rock band, Candlebox).
Papier-Mâché is out today, July 28, 2023, and for fans of huge 90s, stadium rock sounds, this is one you’ll want to get behind.
We previously reviewed Attic Theory with their charity single, Narrow Lines, in aid of Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), so we were thrilled to see their name come up in our reviews pile today.
Papier-Mâché begins with dreamy electric guitar before exploding into a full band sound with stadium-like harmony vocals and crunching guitars. We were reminded very much of Extreme at this point in the song. When the lead vocals come in, there’s a touch of Terrorvision in the voice, and the harmonies that join the lead accentuate the clarity and really bolster the lead beautifully.
We love the use of delays and echoes on the vocals, and the catchy, singalong chorus is just waiting to rattle through a stadium, with its anthemic vocals.
This high-energy track has plenty of rise and fall to keep the listener thoroughly invested in the song all the way through – right to the stinger ending. The crunching guitars add a touch of 90s grunge to the song, and it would be fair to draw comparisons to Shinedown here.
The guitar solo has some glorious harmony lines and is technically proficient, with fast licks worthy of comparisons to Steve Vai, and some soul-melting wailing high notes.
A breakdown after the guitar solo has plenty of singalong moments with perfectly placed repeated echoes on the vocals. The drums and extra vocals build this section superbly, with a couple of Ronnie James Dio moments in the background vocals before exploding back into the repeated vocal harmony riff that introduced us to this song.
Ideas from our ears
A boost around 60-65Hz and another around 130Hz would fill out the low end a touch more. A wider boost around 6kHz could increase the overall presence in the track too. A single band compressor on the top 2 octaves with some make up gain could add top end to the track without boosting the sibilance in the vocals too much. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
Final thoughts
Attic Theory have teamed up with Kevin Martin to produce a stunning stadium rock track in their latest single, Papier-Mâché. We strongly urge you to add this to your Spotify playlist.
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