Its worth delving into the background of a band, to understand what they are about. Malokai are a pop/punk/metal crossover outfit from the UK. They inject a healthy dose of upbeat chirpiness into their high octane performances. Their target audience is the teenager in all of us. The band was comprised of Alex Greig (vocals & guitar), Andy Bell (lead guitar), G Suaznabar (bass) and Dave Williams (drums & backing vocals).
Having originally formed in London, the band took the radical decision to move to Manchester to work alongside The Message Trust. Their website states “The Message Trust works with the hardest-to-reach young people through innovative and effective work in the schools, communities and prisons of Greater Manchester, and beyond through the UK-wide Eden Network. Over 100,000 young people come into contact with our staff and volunteer teams each year – in the classroom, at a live gig, in community activities such as the Eden Bus or after-school clubs, or on the wings of young offenders’ institutions.”
Malokai’s style has been compared to Hawk Nelson, All Time Low and You And Me At Six. The EP starts with a machine monitoring a rising heart beat as the guitars rise up and they launch off with power chord riffing in ‘Rumours’ with “Its time that you make up your mind / Leave all these rumours behind / Open up your eyes”.
They breeze through the teen angst-ridden tale of lost love in ‘(my) Heart Beats (for you)’. Like a surprise ninja attack, they launch into a gloriously rocked-up version of ‘Price Tag’. “Why is everybody so obsessed / Money can’t buy us happiness / Can we all slow down and enjoy right now / Guarantee we’ll be feeling alright”.
‘Young and Dumb?” explores the influence of media upon how young people behave. Alex said “For starters, TV and magazines portray a certain ‘look’ we should all have or a way we should be, and if we don’t match up, then we’re not good enough. We just want to stay ‘stuff that’ to it all! Day in, day out we work up close with young people, so we really get to hear about the stuff they struggle with. We just want to use our gifts and talents to do something good – to have a positive impact on young people. It’s also about chasing your dreams. We want people to know that if they have dreams and ambitions, they can chase them no matter what anyone says!”
There is the slow-burning rocker in ‘You’ with its melodic sections and scorching guitar shredding. They close with the chunka-chunka riffing in ‘What’s Inside’ with its gang vocals. The production is crisp and the band is firing on all cylinders.
Rating: 7/10
Reviewed by Peter John Willoughby
Tracks:
01 – Overture
02 – Rumours
03 – Heartbeats
04 – Price Tag
05 – Young And Dumb?
06 – You
07 – What’s Inside
Band members:
Alex: Vocals, Guitar
Andy: Guitar
Dack: Guitar
Adam: Bass
Dave: Drums
Record Label: Nameless/Faceless Records, 2011