Northern Horizon and The ‘You Let Me Down’ EP.
Northern Horizon – Newcastle, England, United Kingdom.
The Newcastle-based Northern Horizon have been described in the past as a band that sound as if ‘Green Day gave All Time Low a songwriting lesson’ and have released their second EP that in many ways, is pretty-well summed up by the above statement. Take that and add-in a tendency to lean towards EasyCore, Alternative Rock and ever-so slightly Skate Punk and you have a young band ever-changing and finding their feet.
Strong English accents are dominant over the Americanised tones from the genres foundation. These are then blended with the softer All Time Low-esque delivery contrasting the crunching rhythms that themselves straddle more than one era of Pop-Punk.
‘Background Music’ is very lyrically on point and classic Pop-Punk in its determination and observations but also hints at maturity outside of the cliche aspects of the genre. Musically mid-tempo and playful until just after the one minute mark, the track changes tempo at the right time between a chorus made for the genre. Simple but effective break-downs show the heavier and more Alt. Rock aspects of the four-piece as you try to fathom where they are going with this.
‘Without You’ is another Pop-Punk song with many fingers in many pies while coherently managing to taste them all simultaneously with little mess. From the misleading playful flutter in the intro to the melodic rhythms it joins and on to the fast Skate Punk and unexpected Metallic Hardcore riffs, you still find yourself firmly within your Pop-Punk surroundings. The only real issue here is recording and mixing clarity, as with a slight increase in said clarity the band’s output and more than apparent skills would be fully done justice.
‘Run and Hide’ stands as the ballad of the release, sitting in similarity to a band by the name of The Summer War who you should really investigate – Here. ‘Run and Hide’ shows the band in another light away from the Punk-rooted and Pop-Punk stylistics almost completely with their best songwriting thus far and it’s fantastic.
‘Down’ sounds as if vintage Blink-182 had started now and were British and is an almost perfect rendition UK Pop-Punk. EasyCore leads and fast crunching rhythms capture the classic energy of the genre and catapult it into the present.
You Let Me Down shows a band committed to expanding their vein of Pop-Punk as much as possible without abandoning the genre completely. The band wear their influences on their sleeve with no feeling towards sticking to the norm or the accepted sound and that is surely the best way to go about it.
Northern Horizon have recently joined the Flare & Flame family so keep your eyes peeled!
Find Them:
- Social Media/Updates: Facebook, Twitter.
- Music/Merch: Spotify, iTunes/Apple Music, Google Play, BigCartel.
- Flare and Flame: Facebook.
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