CD Review: snarls “What’s It Take”

The band called snarls calls the city of Columbus, Ohio home. There, the quartet of Chlo White (Vocals, Guitar), Riley Hall (Bass, Vocals), Mick Martinez (Guitar) and Max Martinez (Drums) create a style they refer to as Emo Alternative Rock. The band mentions Wolf Alice, Snail Mail, Citizen, Bully as Bleached bands that they like who most likely have influenced the band’s sound and style. And while the band’s style does indeed include both Emo and Alternative Rock influences, they could easily include New Wave as an influence in there as well. The band is currently in the middle of creating their 2020 release entitled Burst. But before that album hits the street, the band is in the middle of promoting their EP entitled What’s It Take, a three-song EP that gives the listener a good indication of what is to come.

snarls begins their What’s It Take EP with the title track of said release. The track “What’s It Take” features two separate musical directions which split the song in half. The first half of the track contains an upbeat, driving pace to the music. This portion of the track features a delivery that is very influenced by New Wave music. The music itself brings to mind the style of the Atlanta, Georgia band The B-52s. In fact, the feel of the song is very reminiscent of that band’s track called “Roam” that they released back in 1990, putting the track just outside of the true era for New Wave. With the second half of the song, the band slows things down and changes directions. This half of the track “What’s It Take” takes the band’s music back to near the middle of the New Wave era as the band seems to channel the spirit of the Scottish New Wave band called Altered Images. With this half of the track, snarls creates a sound that easily brings to mind the feel of Altered Images songs like “I Could Be Happy” or “Happy Birthday” from back in 1981. While one half of the song “What’s It Take” feels as if it belongs in the early part of the New Wave era, and the other part feels as if it belongs at the other end of the era, both halves create one track that firmly falls into New Wave. And while the band members of the group do a good job of channeling the two different styles to bring the song together, it’s vocalist Chlo White who truly brings the two styles together as she is most important part to the mix, drawing out the vocal styles of both Clare Grogan of Altered Images and the female vocal stylings of the B-52s.

What’s It Take continues with the song entitled “Marbles”. With the slow-paced track, the band of snarls combines some modern-day Pop-Punk influences with some older Glam Rock influence to create a track that feels as if it would be right at home on any Alternative Rock radio format. To go along with that musical blend, the band throws in some Emo attitude into the lyrics of the track. On the song, singer/guitarist Chlo White sings about things in a relationship that drive her crazy, making her feel as if she’s “lost my mind,” as White sings in the song. The track also features lyrics about walking down the street, shopping at Walgreen’s and other everyday things most people do during their day-to-day lives. While the track features a slow pace to the music, the instrumentation on the track is far from laidback, keeping the song energetic despite the slow pace.    

For the final track of the three songs found on the What’s It Take EP, snarls performs the song “Walk in the Woods”. With this track, the band takes the sound of their music to the late eighties, early nineties as they incorporate as much New Wave feel as Alternative Rock. The resulting track features music that feels as much influence from the aforementioned Scottish band Altered Images as it contains influence from the American band Sixpence None the Richer. The two different influences blend together rather well to create a style that falls solidly into the Alternative Rock genre. Much like with the second half of the title track of the release, “Walk in the Woods” features a softer energy level to the song’s musical approach. What results is a track that could feel right at home on any modern-day Pop-Rock radio format.

Although only three tracks, the What’s It Take EP from snarls finds the band creating a short release that shows off the band’s various musical influences. And while the release contains only three songs, those three songs are strong enough to grab hold of the listener and make them want to hear more. But since the album entitled Burst will be released in only a matter of days, the listener does not have to wait long for more from this young but talented band. Start with the three tracks found here on the What’s It Take EP from snarls and then stay tuned to the band’s Facebook page for the announcement from snarls of the release of Burst.

Before the Burst album from snarls is released, check out the What’s It Take EP on the band’s record label, Take This to Heart Records.

CD Review: Myloe “Empty out Your Mind”

Myloe is a four-piece rock band out of the city of Boston that is made up of Alan Hokom on guitar and vocals, Fred Mubang on guitar, Tom Shani on bass and Zach Mullings on drums. They incorporate many different styles of rock into their sound. Some of their sound comes from classic rock and some of it comes from more modern rock sounds. It is this combining of influences that helps to shape the band’s music. Recently, Myloe created an EP with the title of Empty out Your Mind that features the band’s unique combination of music.

The newly-expanded six-song EP Empty out Your Mind from Myloe begins with the title track. “Empty out Your Mind” is a track that features a jam band-like quality to it. The quick pace to the track gives it a lot of energy. The song’s lyrics feature a very upbeat quality to them as they tell you to let go of all negativity. The four members of the group work well together to create the song and each member takes a turn as lead on the track. The play between guitarists Mubang and Hokom gives the track a fun, loose feel to the music. And when bassist Shani takes a solo, it is just as strong as any guitar solo.

The song “Paradox” is one of the hardest rocking songs on the Empty out Your Mind EP from Myloe. The track begins with a very strong bass riff from Tom Shani. The riff leads into a song that features an alternative rock feel. The song’s lyrics are sung by vocalist Alan Hokom with such energy that you can feel the emotion in his delivery. The track really shows off the talent of the band as a whole and gives the listener perhaps the best song on the release.

With the next track of “In Your Eyes,” the band slows the pace down just a little while not losing any of the energy from the track of “Empty out Your Mind”. The track begins with a very strong guitar riff that is quickly joined by another guitar part to help create a song that has a very commercial feel to it. The track builds to the full band feel and proceeds to create a very commercial track. Like “Empty out Your Mind” before it, “In Your Eyes” contains lyrics that have to do with perception. However, in the case of “In Your Eyes,” the song takes the opposite approach to the lyrics as they describe a person who has a very pessimistic view of the world.

Myloe slows the pace down quite a bit with the track “Sidetracked”. While the rest of the release features a rock feel to the music, “Sidetracked” has a feel that is a lot closer to soul music. The combination of soul and rock on the track makes for a very interesting sound and really sets the song apart from the rest of the CD. The song also gives the band the chance to jam and show off their talents as individual musicians. The drum solo from Zach Mullings is rather impressive. The energy level comes back up just a bit with the song “Standstill City”. On this track, you get to experience some of the blending of styles that Myloe does in their songs. The rock and Latin influences on the track will instantly make the listener think they are listening to something from Santana. The jam band quality in the music feels like something from Santana’s musical history.

The Empty out Your Mind CD from Myloe comes to a close with the track “What is Paradise”. The final track of the EP is another track that has a jam band feel to it with some alternative rock influence mixed in. The song is a great way to bring the EP to an end.

To see the video to the song “Empty out Your Mind,” click HERE.