What is it about Perth Rock bands and EP’s – there’s just something about the format! The best bands always leave you wanting so much more and the worst leave you thinking that could have been a good single. Thankfully of course Hailmary has always been in that former category.
Back after their 2014 ‘Navigate the Sunrise’ EP and their overseas tour last year with Ugly Kid Joe ‘Evolve Dissolve’ is the band’s next step forward and starts relatively airy and low key with the slow build of the gently simmering dark-at-the-edges ‘Friction Burns’. It’s a song that has all the post-grunge trademarks you might expect from the band, not least a cool Alice in Chains vibe, and it’s a mature and assured song to begin the EP.
‘Equilibrium’ has more of an early STP vibe and gets nicely off the ground, uplifting and rising before it soars above the crowd: It’s just what I love about the band evoking a fertile period for rock without sounding like a pastiche. Marking the middle of the record ‘Longest Line’ adds a different almost Shinedown vibe to the sound and they do it so well, it’s a gentler, more laid back vibe and suits Curran’s voice so well you hope they will do more of this.
Of course the next track ‘Mind Casualty’ is back to what Hailmary does best, heavy as hell grooves and sinister brooding atmospherics before ‘Prove Me Wrong’ takes us out on a lighter contemplative note. There’s a lot of variety packed into a short five song set and it finds the band both playing to their strengths and expanding their reach. If you want to check out some of the best independent rock that Australia is putting out at the moment, these guys must be on the list.
