Deference - 'False Awakening' EP Review

Track List:

1. Scavengers

2. Insomnia

3. Departure

4. False Awakening

5. Become Death Part 2

Southampton metallers Deference certainly know how to pulverise and grind. Their jagged guitars fill out every empty space left sparingly by the immense machine-like rhythm section of Mike Hill. Vocalist Rob Lea gives it the full beans too. He is just as meticulous and cogent as the musicians; his vocals are a combination of both pure energy and precision. The EP opens with ‘Scavengers’, a track that is both very machine-like and very discombobulated, but in good way. ‘Insomina’ and ‘Departure’ follow after and venture towards early ‘noughties' Metal Core, perhaps a little more ‘traditional’ and less ’Djent’’ than the opening track. Fourth song ‘False Awakening’ is very ‘Meshuggah-ed’ out in verses and very Post-Hardcore in choruses, it is a formula that works; if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I have to say that I am most impressed with ‘Become Death Part 2’; the last track on this EP. This song opens with Post Rock guitars plucking gently over chilled drums, all of which sit comfortably under a clip taken from the infamous JFK/General Assembly speech in 1961. ‘Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword’ declares Kennedy, before launching into a full Deftones meets Sikth drop-tuned madness. Later on we hear vocals being manipulated and music dropping out then only to return back to a very ‘Killswitch Engage’ style outro.

Deference come across as a band fully confident and contented with their sound and technical virtuosity. One is betting that the band will expand upon the more Pop and Melodic chorus breakdowns pocketed throughout EP within future releases. Nonetheless the band wear their contemporaries on their sleeves and the ‘soon to be fans of this band’ are currently fans of Metal/Post-hardcore giants Architects, Tesseract and pre-Sempiternal Bring Me The Horizon.