Rising Essex female-fronted five-piece Held By Horses unleash their brand new EP, 'In History', produced by Dan Lancaster (Lower Than Atlantis, Mallory Knox) pulling influences from Deaf Havana and Lower Than Atlantis and attempting to make their mark with a sound self-described as merging sweeping vocals with hearty riffs and elephantine choruses.

Cruising in on a musical crest that could be described as both "typical" and "overdone to the hilt" on 'You Win Some, You Lose Some', this track fetures a neat production as expected but unfortunately nothing groundbreaking to speak of musically. This is also true as second tune 'Little Water' kicks in as there's no defining difference between the tracks as they blend aimlessly together almost. With the lack of the aforementioned elephantine choruses and hearty riffs, the vocal of Harriet Reynolds also falls short of the mark in many respects, although 'The Last Word' does go slightly some way towards musical redemption, featuring Renz Byrne (Never Means Maybe) on joint vocals.

On the positive side there are some nice arrangements on 'Down And Out', which I think I should capture here due to my previous "downer" comments on the band, but still the piece lacks that essential killer hook. The opus is rounded off with 'Virtues' which, again, follows the same route of the previous musical offering held herein.

This is not a bad release by any stretch of my imagination, it just comes from a band with lots of potential who maybe need to put a tad more thought into the catchiness of the choruses...only time will tell if they will ultimately manage this.
 
www.facebook.com/heldbyhorses