shtfstr - Music For A New And More Confident You - Download (2013)

Labels: self released
Review by: MH

This is a band who absolutely hate vowels. They describe themselves as “Exeter’s answer to The Little Explorer” which may or may not be true but was certainly enough for me to get interested in listening to this. This five-tracker sees them exploring a variety of styles. The opener is a mid-paced and melodic track with cleanish vocals and is a bright start. They aren’t afraid to pummel you into submission either as they show on a couple of the tracks, in particular, the incendiary “Destroy McCartney” which opens with the line “He can only be killed by fire/He must die” and is an ode to tackling West Ham’s full back George McCartney really hard. In contrast, “Drunk In Twilight” is almost a ballad and wanders into Biffy Clyro territory vocally. It’s a good song actually. The contrasting harsher and more melodic vocals are a nice fit across the EP especially on “Shhh! You’ll Wake Up The Ghosts”. This is an enjoyable listen and I’m keen to hear more from shtfstr.