Everafter are a three-piece pop-punk band hailing from East London, who were first discovered by legendary producer Chris Tsangrides (Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Gray Moore) who heard an early demo and spotted the bands potential.
The band honed their sound performing across London taking in venues such as The Water Rats, and the Half Moon in Putney as well as trying out their wares over in Germany for a few dates before returning home to work on their debut album, Everything Is One.
Right from the off you can spot the band’s Green Day influence as Let Me Be Yours kicks off the proceedings with a high octane blast of pop-punk with all the bluster and thrills of Dookie era Green Day and just like Billy-Joe’s mob the band graft a big hook-laden chorus, alongside the pogo inducing riffs and million miles an hour rhythm section. As an opening gambit on a pop punk album you can’t ask for much more, Let Me Be Yours is fun, frantic and contagious.
Recent single, Horizons Wide follows and in truth is something of a let down, it opens with promising melodic guitar riff before the band quickly down tune to a grungy, fuzz ridden stomp which would be fine if the managed to find the hook, but in truth the track is something of a muddy mess and you’re left with the feeling the band should crank back up to the frantic opening salvo.
And so the album proceeds in much the same manner, there are moments of genuine promise such as the would be sing-along, This Faith or the more metallic Who You Are but the band seem intent on burying what hooks they muster in a wall of sludge. And when the band do strip back on the likes of In Time, the track meanders as opposed to showcasing the band’s songwriting and hook writing talents.
On a plus side Say You’ll Be Mine strips away the Americanisms and is a pretty damn catchy romp, complete with thrashy guitars, nice vocal harmonies and a contagious, immediate chorus that does make you want to hum along, unlike a number of the other songs on here. Perhaps the likes of Say You’ll Be Mine point to the direction Everafter should be heading.
At the moment Everafter seem to have the promise but are yet to perfect the delivery, there are a few decent moments on here, the opening number has loads of energy, whilst the aforementioned Say You’ll Be Mine and Loving You both offer the necessary vocal hooks to make an impact. But the habit to bury everything in sludge has to go and the band have concentrate on what makes the genre fun to listen to. Pop punk is all about hooks, holler along choruses and energy, once Everafter master the fundamentals they might come back with something special, for now file under potential.
Rhythm & Booze Rating 6
www.everafteruk.com