Brave Rival - 5 to 4 EP
Brave Rival, the award-winning rock & blues band from Portsmouth, made an immediate and critically acclaimed impact with 2022 debut studio album Life’s Machine featuring powerfully dovetailing female vocalists Lindsey Bonnick and Chloe Josephine.
Following on from last year’s equally noteworthy Fight Or Flight, and subsequent departure of Chloe Josephine, the now four piece – Bonnick, Ed Clarke (guitars), Billy Dedman (bass, backing vocals), Donna Peters (drums, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) – have made an equally hard hitting, and harder edged, impact with their 5 to 4 EP.
The band’s statement of harder rock intent is evident from the get-go, with heavyweight opener 'Let Me Rock N Roll.'
A sonically vibrant number with a hook chorus, 'Let Me Rock N Roll' is fast, fuzzed, very loud and proud, slowing only to take a breath for a raucous mid-tempo instrumental section that has Ed Clarke wailing the six-string to fine effect.
A "na-na na-na" chanted, drum rolling segway then powers the song back into top gear, before concluding with an emergency brake finish.
There’s no let-up with following number 'Poison,' a mid-tempo, AC/DC charged, guitar gritty barnstormer with a lustful lyric that leaves nothing to the imagination ("hungry eyes on the prize, feel my way down to pure and sweet depravity; our twisted degradation, I know there’s no salvation!"). Time for bed, kids.
The band’s reputation for melodic blues depth and different rock shapes features take centre stage on near eight-minute number, 'Try Again.'
Atmospheres and acoustic guitar share space with slide guitar and swampy groove before the song builds on an ever lifting vocal from Lindsey Bonnick, reshaping itself as a contemporary blues rock number.
The song then shifts to a brooding instrumental section (some tasty, bluesified licks here from Ed Clarke) before an atmospheric passage, with accompanying vocal cries from Bonnick, sets up a return to the song’s blues swampy core. Great stuff.
The rockin’ side of Brave Rival then returns with the power-down rock-metal of 'Control.'
The band’s heaviest song to date, it’s also their angriest, with Lindsey Bonnick in full voiced defiance as she flips the finger to a failed relationship and takes back control.
"Understand me when I say, I’m moving you right out my way!" hollers Bonnick with serious, on vocal point conviction. A two-part vocal breakdown and Bonnick’s final, vocal high delivery of "control!" are worth the admission fee on their own.
'Wild Child' is a big, boisterous, pseudo shuffle boogie with a huge hook chorus (a Brave Rival trait) that makes for a highly charged sign-off to the five new songs on display (the "Wild Child!" chant in syncopated rhythm with Donna Peters’ drums as the song concludes is a nice touch).
As an added bonus, acoustic versions of 'Poison,' 'Control' and 'Wild Child' also feature.
Each is worthy of inclusion due to their very different arrangements – 'Poison' becomes a stripped back, acoustic ballad; 'Control' is given a folksier makeover; 'Wild Child' is reshaped as a slice of bluesy stomp fun.
With a great production from Tarrant Shepherd and armed with five top-notch new songs, Brave Rival, with 5 to 4, are off to a great, harder rocking start in this next chapter of their career.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Following on from last year’s equally noteworthy Fight Or Flight, and subsequent departure of Chloe Josephine, the now four piece – Bonnick, Ed Clarke (guitars), Billy Dedman (bass, backing vocals), Donna Peters (drums, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) – have made an equally hard hitting, and harder edged, impact with their 5 to 4 EP.
The band’s statement of harder rock intent is evident from the get-go, with heavyweight opener 'Let Me Rock N Roll.'
A sonically vibrant number with a hook chorus, 'Let Me Rock N Roll' is fast, fuzzed, very loud and proud, slowing only to take a breath for a raucous mid-tempo instrumental section that has Ed Clarke wailing the six-string to fine effect.
A "na-na na-na" chanted, drum rolling segway then powers the song back into top gear, before concluding with an emergency brake finish.
There’s no let-up with following number 'Poison,' a mid-tempo, AC/DC charged, guitar gritty barnstormer with a lustful lyric that leaves nothing to the imagination ("hungry eyes on the prize, feel my way down to pure and sweet depravity; our twisted degradation, I know there’s no salvation!"). Time for bed, kids.
The band’s reputation for melodic blues depth and different rock shapes features take centre stage on near eight-minute number, 'Try Again.'
Atmospheres and acoustic guitar share space with slide guitar and swampy groove before the song builds on an ever lifting vocal from Lindsey Bonnick, reshaping itself as a contemporary blues rock number.
The song then shifts to a brooding instrumental section (some tasty, bluesified licks here from Ed Clarke) before an atmospheric passage, with accompanying vocal cries from Bonnick, sets up a return to the song’s blues swampy core. Great stuff.
The rockin’ side of Brave Rival then returns with the power-down rock-metal of 'Control.'
The band’s heaviest song to date, it’s also their angriest, with Lindsey Bonnick in full voiced defiance as she flips the finger to a failed relationship and takes back control.
"Understand me when I say, I’m moving you right out my way!" hollers Bonnick with serious, on vocal point conviction. A two-part vocal breakdown and Bonnick’s final, vocal high delivery of "control!" are worth the admission fee on their own.
'Wild Child' is a big, boisterous, pseudo shuffle boogie with a huge hook chorus (a Brave Rival trait) that makes for a highly charged sign-off to the five new songs on display (the "Wild Child!" chant in syncopated rhythm with Donna Peters’ drums as the song concludes is a nice touch).
As an added bonus, acoustic versions of 'Poison,' 'Control' and 'Wild Child' also feature.
Each is worthy of inclusion due to their very different arrangements – 'Poison' becomes a stripped back, acoustic ballad; 'Control' is given a folksier makeover; 'Wild Child' is reshaped as a slice of bluesy stomp fun.
With a great production from Tarrant Shepherd and armed with five top-notch new songs, Brave Rival, with 5 to 4, are off to a great, harder rocking start in this next chapter of their career.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ