Artist: New Years Day
Title: “Diary Of A Creep”
Label: Century Media Records
Release Date: 2/23/2018
Genre: Alternative Hard Rock
Rating: 4/5
It’s been a minute since I’ve looked into the doings and brewing’s of the band New Years Day, so I was rather excited to dig into this new EP offering called “Diary Of A Creep”. The extended play comes care of the Century Media Records label and is one brand-new original song along with five covers. Generally speaking, the idea of cover albums has grown boring for me, but I’ve opened up on them a little more of late since they are not coming out as often as they used to. There was a time a few short years ago where almost every artist was dishing out a covers album and too much just makes a unique idea stale. The new track is called “Disgust Me” and I loved the overall groove of this one and had to say that there were points when Ash reminded me of Maria Brink of In This Moment. With that band no longer on CMR, perhaps NYD will rise in the ranks to be that sort of band for their roster.
The covers were a wide selection of genres and choices and begin with New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle”. Having never been a study of the band over the course of my life, I compared the NYD version against the original and they kept it as faithful as they can. The original is rife with keyboards and NYD doesn’t have that in their lineup. I liked it. I felt that “Fucking Hostile” by Pantera was an odd choice based on the overall difference between them and NYD. It will surely inspire some circle pits during their shows which is never a bad thing. Last year’s death of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington crushed a whole generation of fans and being honest about it there are still those who are having trouble dealing. I admired the choice of “Crawling” for this EP and felt that Costello knocked it out of the park. It’s my hope they introduce this one into the live set since it will find the whole place singing.
The next track is Garbage and no I don’t mean that as in trash but instead one of the most popular tunes by Shirley Manson and company. They really reworked the vibe and groove of this one and it was rather interesting. Also, Lizzy Hale from Halestorm joins Ash on the vocal lead and the two square-off across the number. It’s the shortest tune on the release and I was quite fond of the way it closes with the group chorus. The EP closes up with the band’s rendition of No Doubt’s massive hit “Don’t Speak” and not only is there a powerful Gwen emulation by Ash but also some great leads by guitarist Austin. I also enjoyed the slamming on the drums that James offered up. Overall this is a good way to find oneself getting into New Years Day if you might have been curious and just never taken the initiative. All of the band’s material seems to be on Spotify so do some aural browsing. Then try to catch them live since it’s a good time.
New Years Day is: Ash Costello, Nikki Misery, Frankie Sil, James Renshaw and Austin Ingerman
Track Listing:
1. Disgust Me
2. Bizarre Love Triangle
3. Fucking Hostile (Explicit)
4. Crawling
5. Only Happy When It Rains
6. Don’t Speak
Official Website: http://www.ndrock.com