Alarm bells tend to ring when you read a band’s biography and it says that the band just want to “write music and stuff”. Thankfully those alarms aren’t warranted on the second release from Kryptic State. Opener ‘Sustain’ kicks into life, sounding like a mash up between ‘Bleach’ era Nirvana and the Strokes, with a punk sounding bassline holding the whole thing together. ‘Puke’s Muse sounding bass intro quickly returns to the raw sound, with Paul Carey’s raspy but controlled vocals sounding more Seattle than Maghera.
The pace slows down and vocals get a (slight) breather for ‘Mr Hyde’ before the punky ‘Cotton Cloud’ races through its two minutes as if the band were set a time limit. The song is let down by the lyrics, which sound like a forced afterthought.
‘Fallout’ ends the EP on a high, and whilst the band may roll their eyes at mention of Mr Cobain, the similarities at times are too striking to ignore.
◀ STANDOUT ⁞ Fallout ▶
◀ SOUNDS LIKE ⁞ Nirvana ▶
