Another week and a handful of awesome EPs for us to check out, from country to metal! Let’s dive in!
Scotty McCreary: Scooter & Friends
The modern country legend follows up his 2024 album with this awesome little collection. Five great country tracks, three of which featuring amazing guest features, and it’s hard not to have a good time listening! The opener with Hootie & The Blowfish is an amazing song that combines both acts sounds perfectly, and Darius’ vocals are always incredible. ‘Swim Up Bar’, despite the Gulf of America reference, is Buffet-like goodness. And the closer is your typical 2000s country fun. All three are massive personal highlights, but the other two tracks are far from bad, too. Both Charlie Wilson and Lee Brice do a great job on their tracks, both bringing such different energies. Heck, the fact that all five songs sound pretty different is a fantastic testament to Scotty’s talents in writing and performing. It doesn’t quite live up to Rise & Fall, but it was never trying to. It’s just a fun 17-minutes of music made with his friends. Definitely worth checking out if you’re a country fan, and is a solid 8/10!
Spin Class: Dinner at Derek’s
The heavy, stonery/grungy indie rock band’s second EP is fantastic, and definitely a step up from their already awesome debut. It gives me vibes of everything from Wolfmother to Black Sabbath to QOTSA to Nirvana to Soundgarden to Royal Blood, and plenty in between! The riffing is heavy, the drumming is awesome and the melodies from the vocals and guitars are catchy throughout. All four songs sound unique and different from each other while at the same time feeling like they all come from the same band and fit together on the release perfectly. It also feels like something pretty damn fresh and different; there aren’t many bands out there doing this sort of sound currently! And all four tracks (with the title one being a short interlude) are incredible in their own ways, making it almost impossible to pick out highlights. The band are insanely talented musicians and songwriters, and have crafted something truly special. No matter what style of music you are into, check this out, you will certainly find something to fall in love with. 9.5/10, I need more of this pumping into my veins immediately!
P.S. is the vocalist the reincarnation of Chris Cornell? DAMN DUDE, what a voice and singer!
In/Virtigo: PREVAIL
The sophomore EP from the Calgary natives comes a solid half-decade after their debut release, and the band very much return with a vengeance! This is an AWESOME sleaze-filled hard rockin’ release, and is four incredible songs all as good as the last! From the bouncing, swaggering riffs to the arena-filling vocals and melodies, it’s incredibly well crafted, written and produced. It’s like a modernised version of Skid Row and Buckcherry, and is eerily comparable to early Santa Cruz in the best way possible. How this band aren’t massive already is beyond me, but the release of this EP will surely catapult them up a few levels! It’s another release packed to the brim with awesome songs, and if you’re into any of the bands or genres I’ve named already, I cannot recommend you checking this out enough! I feel like it would be incredible live too, so hopefully they can make it out to these shores at some point soon. For now, I’ll settle for this release, that is a very easy 9/10 from us!
Brett Eldredge: Kiss Me in the Moonlight
A short release this time, with just three tracks and sub-10 minutes. However, this is a fantastic EP! It was also completely different to his last, and not at all what I was expecting. While a country artist, this had a lot of Latin influence and sound to it, feeling pretty unique and original, and also not something we normally check out here so it really blew me away. From the flamenco guitaring to the horns and Latin beats, the opening track is amazing and feels like it’ll be stuck in my head for days to come. The other two songs are a bit slower but still have the same sort of feel to them, and the addition of the brilliant Pedro Capó on ‘St. Tropez’ adds even more awesomeness to the song. As I said, it’s not something we usually cover here, but I had a blast listening to this, and have done so multiple times just today. If you are at all curious check this out, you won’t be disappointed! 8.5/10
Alfa Pentatonik: Gamma II
We sadly missed the part I of this back in March, however, checking them both out together now was awesome, and definitely the right way to consume them. Don’t get me wrong, though, this EP definitely stands on its own as a solid release, too. It’s heavy electronic stuff, think Prodigy or Pendulum, but then with deathcore screams and growls over the top. And we still get some awesome riffing and guitar soloing too, it being an incredible, creative blend of genres. There also isn’t a bad track on this thing, it being an incredibly solid 20+ minutes of heaviness and catchy melodies. I cannot rave enough about how cool of a sound this is, and I’ll certainly be listening to it plenty moving forward. It gets a very easy 8.5/10 from us!