Attractive Chaos – The Fire Between Us
Release Date: 12th April 2023
Label: Self Released
Order
Genre: Melodic Metal
FFO: Within Temptation, Nightwish, Imperial Age.
Review By: Ross Bowie
The Fire Between Us is the debut EP from melodic metal band Attractive Chaos. The band conjure up a symphonic tale of love and despair across the EP’s six tracks. While pulling in different directions, the EP always remains a classy affair and can have some symphonic power metal infused fun along the way.
The EP opens with Before You Hit The Ground, which has a fun riff that grabs you in right away. The riff builds and gets progressively thicker before completely dropping out and giving way to an acoustic passage, which for a second worried me, but then you’re introduced to vocalist Emma Elvaston’s luscious voice. Her melodies immediately have a story-telling quality to them and take you along with the song. Her voice soars over the chorus and plays nicely with the band’s use of keys and orchestration. The Storm has a guest feature from vocalist Mario Del Rio Escobedo who plays off the melody and adds a beautiful layer of Italian vocals, really taking the song up a level.
The EP tries to balance the fun of symphonic metal against more sombre and restrained moments, and while this is a trick that is done well, the band likes to reuse elements multiple times across the six tracks. Half of the songs use the same idea of having a fun and playful intro, driven by guitars and orchestration, before dropping into a clean or acoustic verse, completely halting the momentum of the song. The guitar work across The Fire Between Us is fun and at points flamboyant, but constantly feels like it is being pulled back on a lead and scared to have too much fun. The moments where the band keeps the pace up and uses it against the softer vocal approach are the EP’s shining moments.
However, this directly leads into the EP’s other main issue, production. The craft the band has mastered is clear, but when the songs put that extra pep in their step, the riffs don’t quite have the impact they should or would have in a live environment. The songs build to a crescendo that often feels flat, no fault of the band’s. The riffs are there but are so sanded down that they lack any real bite. The vocals can at times feel like they lack any real power, but again, this is more likely to be a production issue than the vocalist not pushing herself. Much like the riffs, the melodies are all there and work their way into your head, but the production fails to really take them over the top and give the band that mountain top reaching moment.
Attractive Chaos are an exciting proposition. The song writing on display has me hungry for more, and this is the band’s first batch of songs. Hopefully the band is willing to let themselves have more fun and take on new territory next time around because it’s an element of their sound that really suits them. This EP is an uplifting listen, and while it might lack the punch of their symphonic contemporaries, there is more than enough to suggest that this won’t be the last we hear of Attractive Chaos.
(3.5 / 5)
