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Hear Lies - 'Semiotics' EP Review


Tracklist:

1. System Overhaul

2. Call April, Cancel Easter

3. Wide Awake

4. Blackwell

5. Lead and Feather

"Semiotics" by Hear Lies is a bit different to my usual review fodder, being the resident Prog-headed old bugger I usually get stuff with an underlying concept, mad time signatures and all the other Prog trappings. "Semiotics" is certainly interesting but it's not wreathed in heavy concepts or jumping betwixt many time signatures, instead it's a fairly heavy (not to the point of ear abuse, it does veer close to that sometimes, although never in a bad way, maybe I'm just old) Rock EP with a pleasantly clean and clear vocal which makes a nice change, not lacking in emotional intensity at all but setting itself apart from a lot of "now I'm whispering, now I'm screaming, you'll need the lyrics to work out what" acts.

In days when Rock is sometimes getting far heavier than it needs to be with the sheer depth of the drop tuning sometimes disguising a dearth of ideas, Hear Lies are a band with a sense of melody as well as the skill to make interesting use of drop tunings in a musically intelligent way.

In all, it's a very entertaining listen, in particular I found the song "Wide Awake" and it's building choir of voices towards the end, proved to be my personal hook track, the point when the music clicked with me fully, no discredit to the songs before, I was certainly enjoying them, debut single "System Overhaul" a great statement of intent from the band, but "Wide Awake" was the one that hit home the most.

Following this "Blackwell" is thick with acoustic guitar textures and the use of what sounds like sleigh bells on the first half made it almost feel like a festive song (lyrically it's definitely not a Christmas Song so that idea faded fast). In all the song shows the band capable of playing effectively as an acoustic concern, without distortion pedals, a definite sign of quality, this is the kind of tune that I love to discover on any Album/EP, the one that steps away from the rest of the songs a little to highlight a diversity in the band.

So, Hear Lies are a relatively new band with a lot of promise, and a debut which deserves as much attention as it can get, I for one, look forward to hearing more from them.

Review - Mike McLaughlin

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