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Keepsafe

Worth Living EP

Written by: PP on 15/04/2013 23:52:35

We're soon going to reach a saturation point within melodic hardcore as London's Keepsafe so well demonstrates on "Worth Living" EP. Influenced by all the big names in the style, they resort to playing standard fare melodic hardcore with coarse, throaty vocals and lingering melodies, but partially lack the songwriting prowess that has lifted bands like The Ghost Inside, Hundredth, For The Fallen Dreams, and even Stick To Your Guns above so many others in the genre.

I say partially because Keepsafe are able to string together a number of back-chilling melodic passages from time to time, such as the lead guitars on "Ends At The Nape" or the complex, rich soundscape on "Recovery", but fail to connect enough of these moments together to sound memorable overall. For some reason, they also insist on injecting senseless one chord breakdowns in most songs, probably because they couldn't figure out a better way to seam two separate passages together, which leads me back to my key issue: there's a ton of talent on display here songwriting wise, it just hasn't developed enough yet for the band to realize this fully into dynamic, well-flowing songs. The aforementioned "Recovery" is a great example where they drop the breakdowns in favour of a tranquil and beautiful piano interlude, which ascends into almost post-metallish roars (think Envy here), but it's in the minority on the album. Most other great melodies are simply interrupted with breakdowns that neither fit the song nor the style, so Keepsafe has much to gain when these are removed from the mix.

For now, "Worth Living" is an EP that showcases a young band with a promising future, but only if they take a long hard look at what makes their songs work and what doesn't. The ability to recognize both sides to your sound is the key difference between a great band and a decent one.

Download: Recovery, Ends At The Nape
For the fans of: The Ghost Inside, Blind Ambitions, For The Fallen Dreams
Listen: Facebook

Release date 12.11.2012
Self-Released