Review Summary: Slaves finds a wildcard.
The Velvet Ditch EP is a brief visit, but the 10-minute-long journey is a far more interesting one when compared to last year’s vacant, cookie-cutter punk album. The ironic thing about this EP is the very praise that comes Slaves’ way is the very criticism that burdens it – the pro and con being that this project is severely fractured, yet it works to the EP’s advantage somehow.
The Velvet Ditch EP is a yin-yang of sorts; the first half of the EP will appease fans with its business as usual sound of repetitiously looped lo-fi punk riffs bathed in distortion, crashing drum beats and vocal cord shredding screams. The second half is an arbitrary leftfield grab at experimentation: tapping into tumbleweed bounding acoustic blues territories – but not before fading out with the piano ballad “When Will I Learn？”, which centres itself around Laurie failing to learn from past mistakes. Both halves of the EP go together about as well as dog food on toast, but it can’t be understated that the second half represents an interesting additional facet to Slaves’ humdrum punk sound. The more traditionally abrasive numbers aren’t half bad either, and pack a little more weight to their punch than what
Acts of Fear and Love ever did. If nothing else, an EP is typically seen as foreshadowing for future projects, so if this is where the band is headed in the future, I’m all ears.
FORMAT//EDITIONS: DIGITAL/̶/̶V̶I̶N̶Y̶L̶
PACKAGING: N/A
SPECIAL EDITION BONUSES: N/A
ALBUM STREAM//PURCHASE: https://youareallslaves.com/
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