Review Summary: Before honing their craft on their LP, Elora Danan, gave us this EP. Showing more than a few glimpses of the potential reached on their LP, We All Have Secrets is an impressive debut.
Melody is Elora Danan’s biggest catch, primarily through George Green’s vocals. Unlike most of his counterparts, his vocals are amazing and don’t come off sounding whiney. Although the same cannot be said for back up vocalist, Isaac Kara. His vocal parts tend to drag the rest of the music down, and are just plain annoying at times. Lyrically the album is above average with some great lines, particularly in Check Your Smile, “With one click we have managed to stop time. This photo frame accentuates are vacant eyes. It's all we have for us to prove we lived our lives.”
Now to the actual music. The guitars seem to follow the structure of either a melody or a harmony over the main riff. For the most part the riffs and melodies are great, and really make this a cohesive record. That is with exception of, A Place To Be Somebody (Acoustic) which is only saved by some great vocals from George, and Isaac gives us his best performance by far. The lyrics, which seem to be a huge reference to the movie Fight Club, help this song a great deal as well. The untitled piano instrumental, which would have worked better as an intro/outro to the final track, Thank God For Their Growth In Faith And Love rather than the cheesy Nintendo rip off we get. The song serves us as nothing but filler; thankfully it only goes for a minute.
Before The Blackout is the first song to really showcase the bands bassist. Opening the song with a strange bass line, that you will soon be either tapping your foot or bobbing your head to, but other than that he tends to get drowned out. Elora Danan’s drummer is by no means an amazing drummer, but what he does is commendable. Adding to the songs, rather then showing us the potential he may have. One thing he does well is not overusing his double kick, letting it flourish at certain times, rather then basing his whole beat around it. Which is a nice touch seeing how many drummers in this genre have little affect without it.
Yes it has its flaws, but these guys have delivered a solid and fun album that puts the higher end of competition to shame.