Acolyte
Shades of Black
Release Date: 5 August 2016
Review by Rod Whitfield
Melbourne’s Acolyte add their own voice to the proud and illustrious aura of the magnificent Australian alternative/progressive rock scene with Shades of Black.
Part of that voice is the vocals of frontwoman Morgan-Leigh Brown. Female fronted bands in this scene are pretty damn rare, so this lends them a nice point of difference, and Brown’s soaring voice really shines.
Musicianship and production on Shades of Black are top notch. It is obvious that much care and time have been put into putting this EP together.
Song-wise, the EP opens beautifully with the operatic, Monolith. What follows is another five powerful, melodically punchy tracks that are highly catchy, but also have some progressive elements nipping at the fringes of their grooves and arrangements. This band knows exactly when to rock hard, when to hit on a nice, fat, bounceable groove, when to shake things up with a little odd-time playing, and when to pull back to a tasty, tasteful ambient or acoustic section.
Shades of Black is mightily impressive. I can’t wait for them to release a long-player so they can really show us what they can do.
4/5
https://soundcloud.com/collisioncoursepr/acolyte-space-and-time/s-raVqr
