Are You Home Yet? - Hold The Suspect

Hold The Suspect’s debut E.P ‘Are You Home Yet?’ has this in common with the Y2K bug fiasco – it starts with a lot of excitement and danger, but has a disappointingly unimpressive conclusion.

The four-song release begins with title track Are You Home Yet?, an upbeat rock-out with pinches of classic rock guitar licks stirred in with some red-walled overdrive and Biffy Clyro-inspired epicness. The deliciously produced bass sound has both the snapping tanginess and the warm smarminess needed for the different dynamics of the song.

Dive Into the Sun swings pendulum-like from a metal punch chorus to a soft yet angular verse, creating a parallel with the caged frustration expressed by the lyrics. It’s a balance understood by bands like Incubus and Deftones, and it is captured fairly well by the Livi’ boys.

The E.P falls down, however, on Glass Half Full, where the band stretch for a sadness and emotional depth that is simply not believable in the tone of the music they play, or the singer’s voice, even with the help of a female backing vocalist. The use of glitch beeps two thirds into the song, while an interesting moment, does not save this “obligatory slow song” from sounding forced.

Similarly, E.P. closer Society brings us a melody that verges on ridiculously cheesy, like a sketch show making fun of an advert. The 80s hair-band tune doesn’t match the Iron Maiden-meets-Foo Fighters guitar parts at all, and the lyrics don’t seem to say anything. The chant-along section in the middle is kind of cool, but this song definitely misses the mark.

Hold The Suspect are clearly a band with a great deal of talent at their respective instruments, and this E.P shows that they are able to record and produce studio-quality songs. What they are lacking is boundaries – knowing when a song goes from emotional to cheesy – knowing when a lick goes from impressive to showing off. Still, the brief uses of electro beats and football chant vocals show the band have more in store. With any luck, the follow-up E.P will be an all-round enjoyable piece of music.

Myke Hall