Chicago (US) based band, Releaser, wowed us here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today with their latest single, Vicious Cycles.
Vicious Cycles is an exquisite mix of electronica and 90s rock. Feeling at the start a little “Baba O’ Reilly-esque” and blending effortlessly from a filtered EQ start quickly into a full blown rock song. The song very much fooled us at the start. We felt like we were settling in for a blast of electronic 80s pop almost, but with modern production on the vocals.
When the full band sound comes in, this song really comes alive. Heavily drums driven and constantly moving forward, Vicious Cycles chose some interesting and unpredictable melody lines (a major note we weren’t expecting, for example) that really gripped our attention. We also like the clever off beat kick drum near the start that changes up the rhythms in a way you wouldn’t expect.
The electric guitar riffs are strong and the change up in the style of vocals in the first section into the dual vocals throughout the rockier bulk of the song kept us on our toes. There’s a lot happening at any given moment and you can really let this track wash over you. We were all smiling widely throughout our listens!
Some fantastic choices of panning a couple of times in the song really drew us in and made us fall a little more in love with the scoring of this track.
There are places in the track the vocals are slightly electronic with modern production (at the start for example), but later still in the song, you’re treated to some almost “screamo” vocals with a superb technique and a great deal of undeniable passion. There’s definitely a touch of Linkin Park here.
From a production perspective, and of course, just our opinion, we’d give a little boost around 140Hz to add some more warmth into the overall track. A boost around 60-70Hz will give the kick drum some extra thump and we feel that the vocals will gain a touch more presence by a boost around 3.5-4kHz. Perhaps a top octave shelf boost will also add some extra air and brightness.
This was our first listen to the music of Releaser and honestly, we’re hooked. With an interesting and individual writing style and a stellar performance from all three members of the band, this is an act we will most certainly be keeping a close eye on. Really great stuff!