Even when you’re in your second decade of existence, sometimes it can be cathartic to hit the reset button and acquire and entirely new line-up. This is what The Fifth have done as vocalist Roy Cathey returns to zero, has a shuffle and returns with the bands new eponymous EP.
Assembling a powerful collection of local musicians including excellent guitarist Justin Womble (watch this space, he doesn’t just recycle riffs), ‘The Fifth’ is a professional sounding EP, it isn’t the sound of a group just having fun, this is a serious attempt by a band to get back on their feet by playing some great hard rock that also touches on elements of heavy metal and melodic hard rock. Tracks here such as the ‘Shake Little Sister’, ‘Coming to Get You’ and ‘Roll the Bones’ show a band bubbling with ideas and desperate to expand on them. Thankfully, this isn’t an EP of ‘hard rock’ of 3 chord progressions under the guise of “we’ve heard an AC/DC album”, there is a nuanced approach here that would broadly appeal to fans of Metal Church and Queensrÿche to the likes of Stormzone and Tygers of Pan Tang.
There isn’t anything here that the listener hasn’t heard before, Cathey delivers a great vocal performance that really is the main selling point of the EP, but this is a strong line-up and it puts The Fifth into pole-position for a new, quality studio album.
