By Gary Jackson
So Stonemasons who hail from just outside of Belfast grabbed my attention for that very fact, as I live about 25 miles from Belfast and I always like to check out new material from the local music scene when I can. The band is described as Post-Grunge from the Press Release and listening to this 3 track EP Angst & Spiders it’s a fair description of the style.
First two tracks ‘Audiolust’ and ‘Black Widow’ are really good solid songs with a nice groove and great vocals. The songs have a flavour of all the great bands from the grunge genre Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots in particular and yet the band have an unique sound and style of their own. Track three on the EP Angst & Spiders, for me is the weakest of the songs on offer and this is purely due to the fact that it sounds like a cast off track from Kerbdog’s On The Turn Album, which is a favourite album of mine but for Stonemasons it seems a change in style musically and vocally which is different from the first two tracks on the EP.
The only problem I would envisage is holding the band together long enough to make an impact on the local scene. I have seen and heard really great local bands that don’t seem to get the recognition they deserve due to the limited opportunities for really good venues in such a small place, coupled with the fact that playing the same venues over and over again can cause saturation. It’s a hard balance to strike but if Stonemasons can achieve this then they could be one to watch as the quality of the songs is very good and another easter egg that I have found whilst doing reviews for Ech(((o)))es and Dust that would previously have escaped me.
As previously stated above I think this is a strong EP and I would hope the band can record a full album of material as I definitely would be interested in hearing more material as all three guys seem to be multi-instrumentalists, so the scope for material should be no problem. I will also be keeping a look out for the band on the live scene to see how they fare. All in all Angst & Spiders is a good 3 track EP from a great young band that deserves a listen and leaves me wanting to hear more.
