He Danced IvyOptimistic Cynic

Brisbane quartet He Danced Ivy are the latest rising rock uproar to be heard on the airwaves nationally in the near future.

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With one hot album already under the belt, this talented has just unleashed the next instalment of their musical evolution, an E.P titled Optimistic Cynic with six songs that take the listener through introspective melodies and personal lyrics as well as music that makes your heart race to visceral and energetic instrumentation.

Optimistic Cynic will eat you up and spit your bones out

Singer David Cheney’s vocals soar high amongst this range of at times chaotic sound and excellent musicianship. Guillotines smashes the door wide open with a guitar riff that is out of control, New Stain brings out the band’s accessible songwriting but remains authentically heavy. Spitting on Infinity is a fun dance rock anthem and really plays on the idea that you can dance to distorted guitars, Cutting It Fine cuts and pastes from pretty melodies to down tune djent-metal and does so quite seamlessly. April Fools with its sad guitar opening is your standard modern prog composition, at times fragile but when it needs to get frantic it does. The stand out song of the E.P is the closing track The Singing Tree, it’s excellent guitar grooves make your head spin and it’s the band at their tightest showing the quality they all collectively represent.

Optimistic Cynic will eat you up and spit your bones out furiously but it’s worth giving a few spins because it has real artistic merit and it just might be the right music to have on when your life is spiralling out of control or when you just want to let loose and have a good time.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Guillotines, Spitting On Infinity, The Singing Tree
STICK THIS NEXT TO: At The Drive-In, Mastodon, Dead Letter Circus