Hailing from the sunny state of Florida, G2P’s members—Nathaniel Shepherd (guitars, lead vocals), Sterling Siegfried (drums, vocals), and Matt Mallory (bass, vocals)—have put together a self-titled alternative rock EP to which dashes of funk, punk, and reggae have been added.

G2P opens with “Animals”. The track starts with heavy but simple electric guitars and slowly builds in intensity, with distorted vocals kicking in halfway through. Listeners feel at first that they are in plain rock territory until the guitars kick into high gear; the distortions especially mark the band’s firm foothold into alternative territory. The buildup makes this a good choice for opening track. “Walk Away” starts at the level of intensity “Animals” finished at, bringing in eventually even more guitars and more distortions. A very short instrumental section featuring an electric guitar solo around the two minute mark captures the attention of the listener and stirs hope for more.

The next track features a return to the opener’s song construction; while it does start at a higher gear than “Animals”, the simple beginning of “Me” provides a foundation on which the band members build more and more layers. The instrumental beginning showcases the guitar skills already noted in “Walk Away”, and the high energy instrumental section near the end of the track reflects a band having a lot of fun.

The contrast of the heavy ending of “Me” and the stripped beginning of “Purge” is a little disconcerting and bring the listener to attention in time for the band to kick it again into high gear. The instrumental sections in his track feel more like they are picking up the song from the vocals rather than providing an interlude. One would expect that the closing track, titled “Scream”, would be by far the loudest and craziest of the EP—and the band delivers exactly that. However, it is the one track in which the vocals couldn’t keep up with the melody.

G2P has put together a solid EP with five catchy and sticky songs. This is a band worth following. I have yet to see them play live, but if they can carry their songs well on stage, theirs would be a concert to attend. The EP can be streamed on SoundCloud; more information about the band is available on their
website.

Pictures provided by Independent Music Promotions.  First published on Blogcritics.