Sound&Shape - Now Comes The Mystery EP

Nashville rockers Sound&Shape are certainly not a band to be confined by the past. 'We hope to help Nashville break free of the country music stereotype' they say, bold and confident in themselves. And that assured sense of who they are is to be found all over their latest EP Now Comes The Mystery.

The key word here is maturity, lead track Tangled In The Mane tipping between the raw energy of its choruses to the spectral atmosphere of its more subtle verses - in this contrast there's the sense of scale that defines the band. And maturity combined with scale makes for a powerful concoction, one that's plain for any to see in this track's bassline; a power-packing beast that the likes of Muse would be proud to call their own.

Indeed, the classic and prog influences that this scale lends itself to are stamped all over the EP, in particular the standout track Our Hollow Reasons. Stripped to a backbone of acoustic guitar, the song becomes a kind of 21st century Wish You Were Here; an enchanting and surprisingly moving entity.

You often hear talk of 'distinctive voices', those select few singers who even casual listeners can instantly name and associate with an era. Normally such labels are applied only to eighties legends or eccentric individualists, but Sound&Shape's Ryan Caudle is in touching distance of such a label. And it's befitting of the maturity of the EP as a whole that so often his vocals find centre stage, becoming the focal point of the track; evolving beyond merely the 'vocal', and into an integral element of the song.

What stays with you through all four songs of the EP is the quality of sound on offer, testament to Grammy winning Casey Wood on production duties. Our Hollow Reasons in particular displays a particular richness in its closing bars, a beautiful layering of guitar lines that wash out of the speakers like gently lapping waves.

The Sacred and the Profane seems the most traditional track here; caught in a kind of limbo between Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters - that intense, frantic rock that speaks of endless American roads and the sun beating down on the deserts that surround them. It's thick, gritty and relentless - a real onslaught of percussion that hammers its way into your consciousness. It's short too, at under three minutes, but frankly, that's all it needs - Sound&Shape are band that don't need to say a lot to let you know who they are and exactly what they are about.

An impressively well-rounded EP and one that really shows the band's talent to its full.

Now Comes The Mystery is released on the 12th July.