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SOLDIERFIELD
Bury The Ones We Love EP

Metalbox Recordings (2012)
Rating: 8/10

Bury The Ones We Love is the Metalbox Recordings debut from the UK’s Soldierfield. Recorded earlier this year with producer Steve Wray, the EP is chock full of melody-driven radio friendly hard music.

Containing four rockers and a power ballad, the EP is a nice taste of Soldierfield’s sound that brings to mind bands like Chevelle, Sevendust and Dark New Day, while standing on its own two feet extremely well.

The EP opens with two big anthem rockers in the form of the title track and ‘Feel Alive’. While the goal of both is obviously to get you to sing along, the band gains a ton of credibility with the aggressive, punchy guitars that aren’t afraid to go for the buzzsaw sound here and there. Vocalist Leigh Oates is pretty amazing on both tunes as well, launching the vocals over the top of the music as if his life depended on it. While the band doesn’t sound like them, the vocals are utilized in a very similar way to bands like Ignite and Strung Out. They are sung strongly and they dominate the music but they do it without all the unnecessary screaming or growling in between, despite the music being fairly heavy.

‘Leaving You In Dirt’ takes things a little heavier and goes a little mid-career Iron Maiden on you with a midsection that completely deconstructs the song so it can be built back up in an even more power hungry way. It’s not my favourite song but it proves that Soldierfield has more than one trick up their sleeve.

The lengthier ‘The Path’ stays along the heavier edge as well. With smatterings of mid-paced, solo heavy riffing and downspiral vocals, you can hear some Alice In Chains influence here but, again, it’s not so overpowering that you don’t recognize Soldierfield in the mix.

‘Skyflower’ is the slower tempo power ballad of the bunch and it’s fine. It’s the weak link here as it just kind of goes nowhere in an overall sense. I wouldn’t turn the radio off if I heard it playing but it keeps the EP from reaching its full potential. I can’t help but think that one more rocker would have really pushed everything over the edge.

Have you ever listened to bands like Fozzy, 12 Stones or Shinedown and wished they leaned just a little more towards Iron Maiden and a little less towards Evanescence? If so, then Soldierfield is for you! While this is certainly very commercial and very hook heavy, it burns with a fire that fans of quality hard music will not be able to ignore.

Mark Fisher

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