Another collection of great EPs have been released this week. Let’s take a look at them!
Rifftera: Coda
The thrashy melodeath band have returned with their first collection of music since their 2019 album. In the five years of release drought, it’s great to hear they haven’t lost a step at all. This is three incredible tracks, topped off by an amazing early Iron Maiden cover. It’s heavy, fast paced, and packed full of some awesome screams and powerful, catchy cleaner vocals. It reminds me a lot of Before the Dawn, the perfect blend of that and In Flames, with maybe just a sprinkle of early Metallica in the riffing, too. There’s even some metalcore elements in there too, that I love. And of course, the soloing is a massive highlight throughout. The two singles are of course awesome, but the opening track is also great, setting the tone to the release perfectly. Meanwhile, anyone that covers the Seventh Son epic ‘Moonchild’ and does it this well immediately has a massive fan in me! This is an awesome little metal release, and I’m hoping it means the band are gearing up for another album and hopefully a trip overseas for a UK show or two! 8/10
Madeline Merlo: ONE HOUSE DOWN (From the Girl Next Door)
The brand new EP of the CCMA female artist of the year nominee for this year, following up her short collection from back in January. It’s the perfect follow-up to that, being a chilled-out, emotion-filled collection of slower mid-2000s country pop. The single and duet with Dustin Lynch is amazing, while tracks like ‘Same Car’ and ‘Good Grief’ are also massive highlights. It’s a real solid collection of songs though, with none being bad and them all fitting together perfectly. I’d recommend this to any fan of country music reading this, and it’s very easy to see why she was nominated for a CCMA! Her vocals fit the music perfectly, and she is clearly a very talented songwriter, having a hand in each of the tracks. I’ll be spinning this a lot moving forward, I’m sure, and it gets an easy 9/10 from me!
Johan Tell: Self-Titled
The debut EP of the Swedish rocker is a fun collection of four awesome tracks. It has a real old-school feel to it too, giving me everything from Bowie to The Police. All four tracks are amazing, but I think ‘Eternity’ is my highlight of the bunch. Plus, the closing ballad is incredible and so beautiful. For anyone into that 70s/80s style of rock, I’d definitely recommend this. He’s a very good songwriter who is going to go far in the industry if he keeps putting out stuff of this quality. It’s an easy 7.5/10 from me!