Escape The Box – “Pariah” will leave you breathless!
Escape The Box is an alternative rock band comprised of Ziey Kizzy (Vocals, Electronics, Production), Aaron Maullin (Guitar), Stephen Smith (Bass, Vocals) and LouZy Hero (Drums, Vocals). The UK based quartet has just released its strident and dynamic EP, entitled “Pariah”. This recording is anything but your ordinary poppy alt-rock cheese. Making music is a way to find absoluteness and truth, or maybe a way to make sense of the confusions surrounding life. Sometimes its about telling a story, or simply about playing the fuck out of your instruments, because you want to. Escape The Box do all of the above…brilliantly, and without reserve!
The instrumentals in “Pariah” reflect the above considerations perfectly. The guitar riffs crafted by Aaron Maullin, are among the most minimally masterful riffs that you will hear this year, and they won’t escape your head easily. LouZy Hero is amazingly versatile, going from a thumping metronome to explosively creative. All the while, bassist Stephen Smith provides the balance to Ziey Kizzy’s soaring weightless vocals with his heavy, thunderous bass lines. The result is a record which is simply one masterful and crushingly provocative work that stretches one’s nerves and emotions, refusing to release the tension.
“Pariah” is undeniably catchy yet it shows great musicianship and varies in style, from heavy, spastic rock bombast, to complex music arrangements, and beautifully orchestrated and layered vocals. Opener, “Miss Stress” bangs along through its verse and chorus themes, building to brilliant climaxes of greatly voiced guitar riffs. The driving and effective drumming stands out as some of the best on the EP and adds further to the epic quality of this song. The rest of the firepower is brought by the adrenaline-pumping vocals.
“Play on Player” is like a runaway freight train on ice heading to towards an apocalypse. If it’s true that energy is the key to the universe, and that energy is the essential source for anything to be created. This song is the living proof of that theory.
“She Can Please Herself” makes sure no momentum is lost, as Escape The Box pull out all the stops. The music is aggressive, virtuosic, and…well, energetic. It contains big, chunky guitar riffs, blistering solos, and vibrant vocal lines.
The anthemic “Whatever Happened” is an alt-rocker’s wet-dream. Lead singer Ziey Kizzy steps into his glory, as he leads the band to levels of mayhem. Starting out on a sludgy chugging rhythm and chanting choruses, the track explodes into impressive instrumental and vocal ferocity that will leave you breathless. Menacing and vicious, this track is crazy, wild and bombastically bonkers. I love it!
Truth be told, “Pariah” grabs your head the moment you listen to the first track, and refuses to let go even after the last song is over. If you haven’t listened to it yet, you are seriously missing out on one of the best alternative rock recordings to come out of the British underground in the last few years.
THE STORY SO FAR: Escape The Box officially become a band November 2018, but the idea had always been brewing inside Ziey Kizzy’s head. One day after feeling disenfranchised with his current place in the music landscape he contacted his brother LouZy Hero and suggested they bring his idea to life. Escape The Box was born, both of them reached out to friends to find the right musicians to forge this path with and was super lucky to find Stephen Smith and Aaron Maullin, who both shared the same vision.
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