Sianar are a Scottish six piece Pop/Rock group made up of James McKay on Lead Vocals, Kristian Clezy on Lead Guitar & Vocals, Duncan McGregor on Guitar & Vocals, Gavin Mills on Guitar & Vocals, Gavin Hynes on Bass Guitar & Vocals and Martin Wardlaw on Drums and Vocals. Today I’ll be reviewing their latest EP ‘Cause and Effect’.
‘Crash and Burn’ opens with what in my head I’ve labelled the rewind sound effect, before exploding forward, complex balances of strings and percussion supporting some talented vocals. I like that this song has a bit of energy to it, it’s a back and forth, a series of subtle drops and rises that create a nice counterpoint throughout the song. It is also really catchy, something about the beat gets stuck in your head.
‘Out of Darkness’ opens with a radically different sound, an choir harmony type melody that gets swept away in broad percussion and fast paced strings, it’s another really top notch track, it also has a nice rhythm to it, fast but not too fast, and again a strong vocal component that works really well, you don’t get the feeling the singer is struggling to be heard over the instrumental backing, which can happen from time to time, instead they have a harmony and cohesion that seems to be an integral element of their music.
‘The Fire’ changes things up again, and I like it, the opening chords to this remind me of 80s love rock ballads, think Bon Jovi or REO Speedwagon, but it breaks away from that familiar and establishes another great song, powerful, striking notes that have the right level of fire to them. I think this one probably scoops the slot for my personal favourite on the EP but it was really close.
‘Lost Without You’ is the final track on the EP and in keeping with the rest of the tracks it does something a little different, but what I admire most is that despite each being a unique musical episode on the EP, they all have their own internal compatibility that makes them work well together. This song for instance is a slower song than the previous three, but is still a strong closer to a great submission, but even though it’s slower, it still hits hard, it’s still a robust track that came very close to taking the top slot on the album that I gave to the previous entry. I particularly liked the later half, there was an epic guitar section towards the end that really impressed me.
So that’s what I thought of Sianar’s EP ‘Cause and Effect’ and if you’d like to check that out then head on over to Spotify. And while you’re at it support the band by following them on Facebook.
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