Hailing from the town where I now reside, Scunthorpe, Secretly Soulmates have a definite steel-y grit to their sound which gives them a bit of a northern twang to their Atreyu-esque sound. I’m not sure where this little EP was recorded, but it’s very slick and well produced – the guitars sound huge, the lead parts nicely polished, and the vocals stand out well in the mix, switching from the obligatory scream to the singing parts in a good, albeit generic, way.
The tracks on this EP are, in the main, very good. A lot of the ideas are borrowed and while the band’s myspace page doesn’t ofer up any influences, I’d guess that a lot of the Victory records roster gets played at SSM band practices. The modern-day Atreyu comparison I believe is most prevalent and to be fair the band do it well; the first track hits all the right notes, while the highlight for me is ‘Sky of Steel’, a song which starts off with a strong riff and continues to a high level throughout, particularly vocally.
Secretly Soulmates don’t break new ground, but they do what they do very well.