Lionface tick plenty of boxes no matter which generic direction you approach them from. Rock fans will appreciate the underlying drive and aggression, pop fans will dig the accessibility, one that could easily transfer into chart territory. Add to that subversive industrial dance grooves, dark strands of gothic pomp and twisted electronica and you have a band with broad appeal. I know this from the live show and thankfully all of that on-stage energy and creativity is captured by the e.p.
As the sparse dance grooves of Vampire take us gently by the ear, you realise that this is not a band afraid to explore all the colours of the musical palette, dynamics soar and fall, squiggly electronica dances with full on rock attacks and Kat’s voice transfixes you with its power and clarity, a sonic boom in the eye of the storm. They deliver more conventional rock on Living and glitchy speed fuelled dance on Eclipse, a song that if given to any number of pop divas parading as rock crossover artists would sell in its millions.
No Hope State signs out with the other side of their creative coin. Sultry balladering but still delivered in their own inimitable style showing that even when they take the foot off of the accelerator they still manage to be just as compelling. Whilst many bands stick to the tried and tested formulas and others try too hard to create new templates, Lionface seem to just fuse existing sounds into new shapes, the building blocks are all familiar but the boundaries between genres are no longer a barrier which makes them the perfect band for the post-genre generation.
