Gallifrey The Middle Ground

Back when I first was getting into this EP, nearly two years ago now, the thing that impressed me the most about Mandroid Echostar was their use of clean vocals where nearly every band in this area of music would elect to vomit and retch over their great instrumentals. I know that it’s not a very good thing to say as a music writer, but I probably wouldn’t have given this EP a second listen if there weren’t a clean vocalist here. It just raises the music up to a level far beyond any harsh vocals could, and of course it also helps that some of the melodies sung here are utterly fantastic.

Musically, this is nearly a pure fusion of Protest the Hero and Coheed and Cambria. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a band who can be so simply put down to two influences, especially when those two bands are in completely different realms of music. But honestly here, with the unique clean vocals reminiscent of Claudio Sánchez and Protest’s insanely tight instrumentation, this little EP reaches heights beyond either of those bands (although in hindsight a couple of tracks from The Afterman are better, that was released after this).

The first track here, “The Kingdom and the Crown”, is definitely towards the Protest end of Mandroid’s spectrum, and honestly feels like the sort of track that I want Protest The Hero to make, but they’re too busy screaming and shouting over their flashy instrumentation. It’s a fast and attacking track, led by that undeniable cool opening riff throughout, and kept afloat by some fantastic vocal lines. There are some brief metalcore influences from Protest in the final track “Hexaton”, but by the time that’s hit, I’m too into this to complain about a small section with growling. And regardless, the brooding intro to “Hexaton” that reminds me of some of Coheed’s longer tracks like “21:13” and “The Light and the Glass” is just too good to slap it for having a breakdown.

But the other two tracks here both sound like a metal Coheed and Cambria with some occasional flourishes of Protest in the guitar lines. I’m a fan of melody over technicality, so it’s no surprise that, although the opener is tons of fun, these tracks are far more to my liking, and these two middle tracks are two of my favourite tracks released in 2012. “Lost Luminaires” is an undeniably incredible song. Beginning with an ethnic flavoured riff that works so brilliantly with the metal parts, it builds up with such a fantastic vocal performance, culminating in the glorious hook “… you are booooorrn of the eaaaaarrrrttthhh”, and if you’re not hooked by then, get your ears checked. The midsection of "The Precursor" with its wonderful bridge verse is equally as good, and these two easily cement this as one of the best EP's of 2012.

Mandroid Echostar is one of those releases that is nearly impossible to talk about without mentioning its influences, and judging by the number of times I’ve mentioned “Protest The Hero” or “Coheed and Cambria” in this review, I’ve failed miserably. And whenever I talk about a band taking a lot from a very specific influence, I get the feeling that people will not think highly of this release, simply because it’s not original. And yes, a lot of this EP isn’t original, but it’s excellently written, well produced, technical, melodic, and honestly, better than 90% of Protest and Coheed’s material. If you’re a fan of wanky guitar lines, you’ll find something here, if you’re not a fan of wanky guitar lines (like me), you’ll still probably find some great enjoyment in the soaring hooks over “Lost Luminaires” and “The Precursor”. Mandroid have made a big splash with this debut, already winning over a whole hoard of fans, and fueling a successful kickstarter campaign that ended in the Citadels EP (which I am yet to hear). This is a fantastic debut, even if it sucks off too much from certain obvious sources. But pay note to my score, because aside from The Afterman: Descension, which was released a year after this, that score is higher than every Protest The Hero or Coheed and Cambria album.

7.3

Originally written for my Facebook page/blog: www.facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog