Rightly or wrongly, you can sometimes gain an idea of a band’s sound by the sort of band they support. Having supported an AC DC tribute band, Acca/Dacca, you would be right in thinking that Solid Sun don’t lack in classic rock heft and propulsion. If this was all that mattered then Solid Sun would be getting top marks for their EP ‘Fall In Line’, however, that would be glossing over the lack of strong melodies, intensity and depth.

Opening track Exhale The Flames begins with a Foo Fighters style intro and develops into a weighty hard rock blast. It holds no surprises and there’s no room for faffing around. It’s a formula repeated  throughout the EP on title track Fall In Line, the stomping beat of Some Kind Of Party and on the ZZ Top injected The Smallest Move. All the songs go under the ethos of bigger equals better giving it a feel that wouldn’t seem out of place at an arena venue. It’s after repeat listens that it starts to creek.

Lead vocalist, Tom Slattery, tries manfully to rise above the cacophony of guitars and drums and he can hold a note as he demonstrates at the end of Fall In Line, but his voice lacks the gravitas necessary to carry the music. It could be an issue with the sound mix as Slattery’s vocals are just not prominent enough during each song. Instead, the guitars carry much of the focus.

Raffaele Puzzoli on lead guitar displays all the technical dexterity on the guitar solos that you would expect for this type of music. The issue is that the solos are too predictable and almost cookie cutter like. Puzzoli ought to be injecting more of his stamp on them to really make them stand out.

If you are a classic hard rock aficionado then ‘Fall In Line’ is a perfectly acceptable entry in the genre and you can feel happy crushing that empty tin of beer on your head. If you are casually browsing something new then there are better exponents of this style of music.

Solid Sun are unlikely to pique the interest of those sitting on the fence.