Hertfordshire alt metal quintet Defences released their latest EP ‘Thoughts That Keep You Awake’ on 3rd July! After just being confirmed to play the Takeover Stage at Download Festival 2021, Defences are on the rise and they are definitely ones to look out for!
After a short atmospheric intro with ‘Upon Waking’, the EP is brought to life with ‘Shatter’. This track is the perfect continuation from its predecessor and maintains the slightly eerie tone. It is an incredibly tight track with passion fuelled vocals which send the EP off to a strong start!
After this comes ‘What You Know’, this is one of the most hard-hitting songs on the EP, so much so that it is revisited later on with an alternative version. Before getting to this, there is a slight change in tone with ‘In Eclipse’. The generally silky vocals and ethereal tone throughout this track are occasionally broken up with more forceful, harsher vocals making this a seriously dynamic song.
The second version of ‘What You Know’, titled ‘wht u knw’, is laced with distortion giving it a disorientating sound and reveals Defences’ versatility as a band. This is a great way to end the EP as it displays the range of sounds that they’re capable of while reinforcing the atmospheric feel that was experienced throughout ‘Thoughts That Keep You Awake’.