EP Review: Lovestay

What a week! I just found out Refused are playing at Laneway and then this lands on my lap, well laptop.

There are some bands who are innovators, they become the bands that other people follow and unfortunately some try to copy. When you first see or hear these bands it is often obvious, they just stand out. I remember the first time I saw The Mint Chicks or Cut Off Your Hands (they were called Nova Echo at the time) they blew me away.

Barracks just did the same thing with their Lovestay EP. Anyone who has heard their previous releases might be worried by the title Lovestay thinking that Barracks have moved into the post softcore scene but whilst there is definitely more melody going on this time round Barracks still hit hard and loud. The production by Nathan Sowter is excellent as usual and you can hear influences of other NZ bands he has worked with in the past but one thing that stands out overall just like the other innovative bands I mentioned is Barracks don’t sound like a New Zealand band and that is a good thing.

Lovestay is not a collection of watered down Blindspott tunes like so many bands over here seem to trudge out. This is a blast of melodic post-hardcore that needs to be turned up loud. The vocals are great and these guys are talented enough to take this music anywhere. The stand out track for me is Afterall as it is probably the most immediate and angsty but all the songs on here stand up against anything their contemporaries around the world would release.

New Zealand has produced a band that could put us on the map again. A band that others in NZ will try to emulate. Bands like this in a country as small as ours are rare. If Barracks keep this up and set their sights overseas they could do anything.

– Paul Goddard