Attack The Day are a quintet of rockers hailing from County Fermanagh. Their debut EP, entitled ‘Shadows’, shows off some incredible guitar playing, impressive drumming and six tracks from the band.

The EP kicks off with an intro track that weaves guitar melodies and leads into Alive. There are a lot of positives to be seen on the EP, the most prevalent being the lead guitar skills of Mark Cadden. Cadden delivers some blistering riffs that elevate the caliber of the music quite a bit. The drumming of Shane McGovern is sometimes frantic but always changing to create something interesting which is great to see in a band so young. One of the biggest issues with the EP is how vocals are sometimes drowned out, as if they’ve been lowered in the mix. The vocals of Dáithí Murphy vary in quality throughout the EP; from the great delivery during Alive to the sloppiness in Egyptian. However, this is something that will only improve with time.

Lyrically, some of the tracks come across as whiney but you’ll let it slip because musically, Attack The Day are truly excellent. The songs are all well written and the EP flows very well as a whole, and as a first EP, things like that can be tough to nail.

Divided starts with bass and drums, but the bass seems to be mixed down too low and as a result, it fails to really grab your attention. Despite this, the bassline played by Ciaran Fitzpatrick does grip you as the song goes on. Divided is a bit different to the other songs on the EP – it’s more vocal-led and Murphy’s vocals are possibly at their best on this track.

There is plenty of positives to take from ‘Shadows’. Attack The Day are a young band who are still finding their feet, and if you take it as that, it’s quite enjoyable the whole way through. The production is a bit off at times and the same root notes are repeated throughout the EP but the six tracks are easy to listen to, there are lots of interesting riffs and certain sections (like the second half of Shadows) are insanely good. There’s certainly things to work on, but the potential is bursting from the seams. Attack The Day’s journey into the musical world has only just begun.