Glass Caves Come Alive With Exceptional Debut

I honestly couldn’t be more excited to tell you about Glass Caves’ debut album Alive.  It thrills from start to finish and excels in what I can only describe as a masterpiece of a first LP.

There are many perks of working on a music reviewing website dedicated to new music.  We’re constantly sent new material from up and coming bands, some good, some bad, some average, some misguided, some standout and some exceptional.

It’s a mountainous task to listen to everything we’re sent but the simple joy experienced when you discover something you think is stand-out is electric.  A shivers-down-your spine feeling that grows into an overwhelming sense of excitement, which is what lead  me to write this piece and tell you about Alive.

So where to start with Glass Caves?! It’s actually a tough one simply because there is so much positive stuff to say.

Alive’s opener “Go” is a sublime entry point, delivering 3.13 of indie rock guitars, frantic drumming and deep, dusty vocals.  I can’t stress enough how much I’ve enjoyed this song, I'm honestly listening to it over and over again.

Now without wanting to wax lyrical about every track on the album - which is very possible, believe me – I would like draw your attention to a few of my highlights.  “Out Of Control” and “Breaking Out” are slightly more pop based but this is by no means a negative.  The pop tones blend seamlessly with the darker electric guitar riffs and provides a delightful harmony.

The album then slows slightly to tracks like “Match”, however nothing is lost from the momentum as the frantic beats are exchanged for mesmerising vocals and impressive guitar riffs.  Nothing short of awesome.

The band have had a pretty intense couple of years.  Building on their city to city busking, they’ve moved to gigging relentlessly, a hectic festival schedule and now releasing Alive at the end of October (27^th to be precise).  This journey seems to have provided them with a steep learning curve and a great way of continually developing their songs and overall sound.  That said, I'm unable to comment on how they sounded when they were busking, but I find it hard to believe that they could have sounded the same as the band releasing this album.

Alive has been produced by Rich Turvey (The Mispers) which makes perfect sense, with the single “Go” mastered by John Davis.  However this did surprise me sklightly as he’s the man behind Royal Blood and Catfish and The Bottlemen.  I must profess that I’m probably still the only person in the UK who hasn’t heard the Royal Blood album so I can’t make comparisons there, however I did recently review the Catfish And The Bottlemen’s Balcony and I wasn’t it’s biggest advocate.

Anyway, without wanting to dwell on that, Alive provides one of the best debuts I’ve heard so far in 2014, honestly.  The albums overall finish flows beautifully and from start to finish each song builds to create a superb climax.  I would imagine there will be multiple accolades going forward for the 4 piece.

Simply awesome. Nuf said.

Visit the Glass Caves website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9PfPCzBxLs Written by Mark Jennings

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