I’m not really sure how to describe Leeds’ Pray For Hayden to be honest – they manage to merge influences such as The Blood Brothers and Finch pretty well, creating a sound that maintains a sense of melody but is also hard-hitting and varied. Thery’re not doing anything new, and they aren’t the best band around at what they do, but this is still palatable and a decent stab at a five track EP. The vocals remain solid throughout, switching from the singing that lights up ‘On The Count of 3’ to the more aggressive stance that swaggers through ‘Haddonfield Collective’.
To be honest the band are a lot better when the drum rolls explode and the vocals tend to be a bit off-kilter – when they go down the more predictable route the band do sound like a whole host of other ’emo’ bands that do this a lot better. But when they’re unpredictable, aggressive and peeling off riffs, Pray For Hayden show promise. And yes, they may wear some of those influences a little too obviously, but I’m a sucker for a good song and the ideas the band have often work – although some spit and polish could make them work better. For instance, ‘Can’t Stop It!’ has all the ingredients to be better than it is, but for some reason the driving riff and clever basslines don’t quite work as well as you hope they might. Still, there’s promise here and some hard work could easily take this lot up a notch.
www.myspace.com/prayforhayden
paul