Review Summary: They have the room to improve, and they certainly need to, but for now they create a satisfying and hopeful debut to what could be a long and promising career.
Over the last year or so, I’ve grown more towards unsigned, less known bands. Maybe because I love telling people about unknown talent or maybe because I have hope for up and rising bands to bring back what we all love about the genre. Adestria is a six-piece post-hardcore/metal core group from San Diego, California. “Oh the Places You’ll Go” is the bands debut, and it shows just how much talent the members of this band actually have. The EP includes 6 songs including an intro and intermission period, but it includes all the right elements and blends them together oh so well.
As ‘With the Wind At Your Back’ begins, were hit with every element right away. The guitar riff is catchy, the drums are fast and the synth is haunting. All this leads into what one may call an average breakdown, but the band executes it so well. Vocalist Matt (couldn’t find last name, I tried!) does absolutely nothing new or exciting, but he cans scream well and has a good range so it never really gets repetitive. His singing on the other hand is just okay, it’s very average but fit’s the bands sound. As the song comes closer and closer to the end, we realize that this band has got what it takes, and the ending breakdown to the song blows everything else away we’ve heard so far.
‘All My Friends Are Wild’ showcases the synth extremely well, and instead of it being used as a major part in the band, it compliments the songs with haunting background sounds. It varies from low sounding orchestra piano’s too quick violin type sounds, but it does such a good job of adding that little bit of variety to each song. Towards the end the synth gets a little more involved with a quick little dancy section, but that end’s quickly as the breakdown begins. ‘Concrete Eyes and Ivory Smiles’ shows the clean vocals at their best, yet we find nothing really new or different from the other 2 songs we’ve already heard. This is one of the biggest problems with this EP, every song sounds similar, which is usually a problem a band runs into with a full length. Because of the shorter length of the EP, the band should have enough creativity to make each song stand out from one another.
‘Dreamer’ is the best track on the EP, simply because it does the best job of combining all the elements heard throughout the entire disc into one song. The chorus is catchy, and the guitars compliment it with a very catchy riff in the background. While all this is happening, the synth sets a haunting mood over the entire song with a soft piano sound. The ending breakdown brings everything to a heavy ending, and does a perfect job leaving the listener with a sense of satisfaction.
With a bit of tweaking here and there, Adestria could be one of those bands to look out for. The only big problem is the fact that, if you run into repetitiveness while listening to a six track EP, imagine what happens with a 12 track full length album. They need to find a way to make every song stand out, if they can do that then they’ll be set. Overall, this EP is awesome, it’s filled with heavy breakdowns and stand out synth moments. I say check this group out, and hope for the best in what they move on to do.
