EP REVIEW: Pressure Points – ANIIMALIA
If you time-travelled back to 2020 and told yourself you’re about to start a band at the height of a global pandemic, enter and win a nationwide competition and suddenly sign to Marshall Records, record an EP with super-producer Romesh Dodangoda and open a stage at Download Festival. You’d laugh in your face, wouldn’t you?
On Pressure Points, ANIIMALIA prove it’s not just a fantasy for guitar hero fanboys, but that the golden ticket is truly yours for the taking if you’ve got some spark. With just three singles to their name, Pressure Points is exactly that; a set of five songs that pile on the pressure for a band who’ve got so many bets on them, one wrong move could bankrupt a nation. So, do they have the bite to match their bark?
If opener Alien’s air-raid siren of a riff is anything to go by, the short answer is yes. The four-minute frenzy lays down the gauntlet for Pressure Points‘ winning formula. Vocalist Kira Beckett sings like a siren wading through the sea, distracting you from the dangers of bassist Max Reynolds and drummer Ben Gasan’s riotous rhythm section that comes crashing down on you like the rocks below as the chorus hits your eardrums.
With less than two years in their tank, and as many shows under their belts as they have fingers, you’d be forgiven for assuming Pressure Points is a blueprint of a band. But ANIIMALIA aren’t from this planet, they write songs like they’re playing them in arenas. Silver Linings bassline is so grotesquely groovy you’ll be two-stepping through a mosh-pit, whilst Alien’s chorus could kick out of an F5-induced Brock Lesnar pin like it didn’t make a dent.
The confidence the band carry from opener Alien all the way through to the chaos-inducing closer Haywire is the glue that keeps this collection together. Every song is delivered with the energy of a band who’ve doused themselves in kerosene and set themselves on fire, each one unique in its own way yet undeniably part of the ANIIMALIA sound. Whilst False Enemy is bound to boil up the blood in your veins, as Kieran Boobyer shreds riffs like ripcords for Beckett to wax lyrical magic over, D.O.A. is the sound of speeding down a highway with your head hanging out the window. All the while, Silver Linings is self-empowerment shot through the veins like adrenaline.
ANIIMALIA aren’t just chucking out anthems without substance either. Grab a shovel and dig deep into Pressure Points and you’ll find a band tackling modern life’s growing pains with a fine-tooth comb. Whilst some bands can write well, they can’t always make it connect, whereas ANIIMALIA twist words together and spit them out with venom. They’re not afraid to put themselves in the firing line, looking at their mental health in an audible mirror, with Alien offering a universal anecdote with angst: “I tie up all my symptoms with pressure points / I don’t mean any trouble so hear me when I say / What’s in my head is lethal / I try to cut its stay.”
Not since SPIRITBOX gave us Holy Roller has a band arrived out of nowhere as fully formed as ANIIMALIA do on Pressure Points. Whilst there’s so much more potential to unlock, these five songs are the sound of a band destined to headline stadiums one day.
Rating: 9/10
Pressure Points is set for release on August 19th via Marshall Records.
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