Palm Reader - EP

Pitching us headfirst into the loud, uncompromising and excellently titled ‘Doppelgangbanger’, lead singer Josh exposes his lungs for us from the start, and comes up red raw. The power behind his voice combined with the dark baselines and structured guitar riffs fills your ears with pure energy, morphing as the track explores further routes. It’s as if Jekyll and Hyde formed a band to scenically transfer from hot and heavy rage in discordant clashes, to more structured, slower sections showing off gleaming licks and drum fills, leaving your mind scrambled.

‘Seeing And Believing Are Two Different Things’, though similar in formula, is thicker with fast paced shredded guitar loops and undulating rhythms which spin your head, leaving Josh’s rasping lyrics speeding to catch up, “the fire in my legs will find you”. This undulating current sweeps through to the jewel in the crown ‘The War Between The Head And The Heart’. Characterised by the Jekyll and Hyde fluctuation, a wave of fury mixes with the sturdy riffs, reigning in this runaway track and morphing once again. The beauty of each metamorphosis is that it shows off Palm Reader’s confidence in stripping it back, exposing the elements, before charging into the fray once more to fuck shit up. This gives that sense of rising crescendo with in a millisecond, a sudden burst of energy that kicks through, right up until the final sustained note. It brings a lot more meaning to the chorus lyrics “No more wasted time”.

Ending with the shortest and meanest ‘What Are Friends For’, the discordant is back in full force, with guitar strings battling with the sturdy drum loops, ending in reverb and confusion. Palm Reader have epically stepped up to the Metal plate, touring the boundaries of rage with a courageous energy that doesn’t disappoint. With just four tracks recorded to offer right now, you may be asking if there is more. Well, with a new EP hinted at a release around October, you don’t have long to wait.