EP Review: My New Maze

Young Wellington 4-piece Pale Lady, winners of the 2017 National Battle Of The Bands, hit us with their latest EP called My New Maze. And 6 tracks of rollicking rock n roll ensue.

First cab off the rank is the tune Fear The Fun, opening with what sounds like a 19th-century harpsichord that then bleeds into a crunchy guitar riff intro. This song has an interesting mix of Green Day styled vocals mixed with hard rock/metal riffing. It’s a catchy little beast and fans of the bands Green Day or the Darkness will love this rocking tune.

Never Gonna Be This Way is a charged up punk rock number full of youthful energy with a catchy chorus and one of my favourites on this EP. Brother Blue is a bit of a departure in sound, humour is served up in large slices here, this tune is one whacky number, it features Beatles styled verse interludes with rock metal grooves and epic guitar solos, good fun indeed.

Tell Me Why is a melancholic pop-rock tune that’s a little bit paint by numbers but still a good tune none the less. Culture Vulture is my favourite on this EP, it opens with a sonic riff onslaught and features tasty drumming by Sam Higham, it’s a sonic heavy blast with a funky break down, what I like about this tune is it breaks away from the formulaic punk/pop-rock riffage and explores some exciting alternative territory.

Taken by the Road ends the EP on a solid note, with great use of floating melodies, crunchy guitars and even had shades of prog thrown in for good measure.

Overall a really good effort from these lads, it’s early days for this band but it would be beneficial for these guys to focus on one stylistic direction and then gun it down that road, otherwise the music can come across as a little derivative, but Pale Lady is a talented rock band to keep an eye on in the future.