EP Review: This Summit Fever - Distraction Rituals
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
With a wide range of influences, from Kyuss to Black Sabbath, from Nirvana to Soundgarden, and spanning across several genres like stoner rock, grunge, post-rock and garage rock, the self-proclaimed "heavy fuzz rock" duo of Andy Blackburn and James McSorley, are back with their latest self-produced EP, 'Distraction Rituals'.
This Summit Fever are a band that will be very hard to pigeon hole into one single genre, and that’s not a bad thing at all, as they have tried to capture their live sound on record, and from struggling do find the correct personnel to become a trio or quartet, they ploughed ahead and experimented with different tones and sounds, and gave themselves more fuzz!
'Distraction Rituals' is a four song loose concept EP about society’s tendency to ignore problems and focus on immediate pleasure’s instead. The opening track, 'Messiah' is a proper headbanger and is about humanity being distracted by things that don’t truly matter while politicians push unsavoury legislation. You can feel the fuzzy tones coming through in this one, and I like the fact that it’s got a decent guitar sound and they’ve left the song short, so that it packs more of a punch.
Next up is 'Sometimes a Tidal Wave' and again begins really strong and has an intoxicating blend of sounds, with a midway dream sequence sound thrown in for good measure, before the fuzz returns, and I really love the way it’s all mixed together, as the sound is very unique and produces a powerful song.
This is followed by 'It Contorts' which has a great riff flowing through it and shows how good and versatile Andy Blackburn is as a musician, as he creates the characteristic fuzz by splitting the guitar signal to capture both the bass and guitar sound, plugging into an octave pedal, then bass fuzz pedal, then a bass amp for the low end, and it works, really, really well.
With final track 'The Widow' they go for a softer opening, as the song explores the occasional value on distraction, especially following the death of a loved one, and with a different vocal style and cracking drumming from James McSorley, it produces a song that will resonate with lots of people.
Overall, it’s a great EP, with lots of variety and with their distinctive sound coming through loud and clear, it bodes well for the future of the band.
