Dials are influenced, apparently, by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Blood Brothers, At the Drive-in, Minus the Bear, The Doors, Kings of Leon, Bright eyes and Portishead and this is evident in their four track demo which is a very atmospheric rock-based affair. While not as dynamic as an ATDI or as melodic as a Kings of Leon, you can kind of see where this Shewsbury-based four-piece are coming from. ‘If You Could’ actually reminds me, vocally anyway, of David Bowie. A little anyway.
Truth be told this demo is pretty good for what it is, it’s just not really my kind of thing. The four tracks on this release are all very well structured and sound great. There’s been no expense spared with the production and the guitar work is well done. My only complaint is that it’s neither melodic nor atmospheric enough to stand out among the pile of other bands and that’s something for Dials to work on. That said, this is more than competent and if you’ve got an afternoon off and are looking for some new music to check out, you could do a lot worse than to start here.