Dolphins

Dolphins are in good company. Their debut album shares a producer with some great bands including two of Leeds’ finest heavyweights in Pulled Apart by Horses and Dinosaur Pile-Up. And like these two bands Dolphins also deal in big riffs and an overall atmosphere of fist-pumping confidence.

From Pickerel to Flipper certainly owes a lot to bands like Cancer Bats and The Bronx with prominent guitar sound always carrying the song and it’s usually enough to keep your head nodding along and James Kenosha’s production work ensures that you get a dose of everything in equal measures. Where the album finds itself falling flat though is the decision to sit on the fence in the vocal work department. The sneering, half shouted, half spoken lyrics are not quite melodic enough to be emotional but not quite harsh enough to be in hardcore territory and I find myself wishing the singer would just mean it a little bit more, the lack of range in the voice means the music quite often lacks any kind of lows and highs and seem to just sort of chug along.

Unsurprisingly then the album’s finest moment comes in the instrumental 5th track that shares the band’s name, Dolphins is a song that brings something a bit more exciting to the table with soaring riffs and crashing drums. It’s the musical elements in this track that, combined with the grit of the other songs would result in something much more exciting than what’s on offer.

From Pickerel to Flipper is very well presented but ultimately mediocre. There’s bags of potential here but next time lads, let’s be a little bit angrier about something.

#Alternative #Dolphins #Stubble #Aidan Rivett