1st October 2022

Review: “Dream Awake” by Defects

As a collective vocalist Tony Maue, guitarist duo Luke Genders and James Threadwell alongside rhythm section in drummer Harry Jennings and bassist David Silver are a quintet who know music. They’ve been living and breathing it for as long as they can remember having been in bands who have shared blood, sweat and booze on the road with everyone from Iron Maiden and Disturbed to Bullet For My Valentine and Bring Me The Horizon. They’ve collectively released multiple albums Worldwide in their former bands and with an insatiable blood lust they have forged a new project in the fires of those acts and now go by the name Defects. They have already taken to the stage at Bloodstock Open Air Festival, The Great Escape, 2000 Trees and Download Festival this summer while opening for Melodic Death Metal pioneers In Flames alongside Vexed for a full tour. So after that grand fanfare, what does their debut EP sound like?

As an EP “Dream Awake” comprises two previously released singles with a collective 123k of Spotify and YouTube streams combined, something that should probably come as no surprise with bands choosing to waterfall release singles to get themselves out there as they fight their way to the top of the mountain. Getting things off to an incendiary start the radio tunes into a shotgun blast as “Scapegoat” arrives with a fretboard smouldering riff before the unclean vocals take hold. A rampage through Modern Metalcore with flavours of We Came As Romans at their most aggressive, the band use unclean and clean vocal moments to get their message across with a savage Metallic Hardcore breakdown moment that sets off the fireworks. It’s a energetic start that is then followed up by the bands first single “End Of Days” as the pair of cuts appear in the opposing order to which they were released and the reason for that becomes obvious why when the huge clean chorus surfaces. A sing-a-long of arena filling stature within the framework of Metalcore riffs is carried off perfectly thanks to slick transitions which mean that none of the energy in the process, a testament to the bands musicianship. The title track is an interesting one, the one that didn’t see release before the EP as a whole and by far the most melodic with anthemic qualities. It sounds like it should be a mid album cut and starts to meander a little before the Deathcore roar from Maue that is followed by a perfectly executed solo which makes the track so much more rewarding as on repeated listens you’re waiting for that moment. There is little doubt that Defects could well be the next big thing to climb out of the scene and with this you’re simply left intrigued and wanting more… [7.5/10]

Track Listing