EP REVIEW: The Divide – Wheel
Four-piece Finnish outfit WHEEL have released their third EP The Divide. After their ambitious first two ventures, The Path and The Change, what do these progressive rockers have to offer this time round in their latest theme of personal detachment, and the struggles of separation and emotional rifts?
Kicking off with Please, we’re welcomed into this experience of the band with a song with big hooks, stomping drums, and very strong vocals that really carry the heart of the overall track. A great chorus, there are themes of betrayal and division, as the EP title itself implies. All aspects of the band complement each other greatly, and it’s hugely promising for the success of this song and the EP as a whole for such a strong opener.
For fans of PORCUPINE TREE and TOOL, you should find something similar to these great bands, with a rounded edge of hard rock, all while filtering through their own ideas. However, that’s no bad thing, using that influence and ideology to create something fun and entertaining. Pyre continues on with the energy, taking on a more blues edge, with a little something of MILES KENNEDY in the vocals, and an overall good momentum. The break down into a very pure, and truly technically impressive piece of guitar work on the solo creates a nice distinction to the heavier, more intense parts of the song. The vocals are exactly where they need to be in this nearly eight-minute-long track, nothing overstays its moment, but rather allows for the different elements of the band’s dynamic to shine through.
It’s Over Now has a much more sombre start, a very stripped bare acoustic performance that takes on a lot of the country elements to the previous tracks. The way this finally builds into something more tonally diverse, swaying with ease into something both close for many listeners in its lyrical storytelling, and yet comforting in the tone of this much quieter piece. The message is very untainted, and really inspiring, a cautionary tale, while also acting like an auditory ointment for those who’ve fallen off a path. Rounding off where it began, in much the namesake of the band, an extended album version of Please is something of a bonus here; in its full form with all the added details you’d want from an extra two minutes. It’s a bigger, bolder and more expansive version of what we began with, and if that’s any indicator for how the band’s career is about to unfold, things look set to be really interesting.
The Divide is a fantastic EP from WHEEL and it really packs a huge amount into a very small dose of wonderful progressive rock. Very entertaining, technically impressive and genuinely enjoyable to listen to, every member of this band has grown in strength and harmony on this record. If this, and the previous EPs are anything to go by, this big, bold prog rock band with something to say will be making their mark on the wider world in the near future.
Rating: 9/10
The Divide is out now via Umbrella Productions/Warner ADA.
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