A word to the wise – this band is NOT “the British Paramore“. I was first informed about this band through Twitter where I was asked if I wanted to review “the British Paramore“. I’ll review anything relevant to the site so was more than happy, and a little intrigued, to hear the band in full. I then received an email headed “Introducing: Lecarla (“the British Paramore” and went on to their Myspace page where the same line is mentioned several times. Now there is such thing as overkill, especially when the band sounds absolutely nothing like Hayley Williams’ mob at all. It’s not even close, there’s no resemblance apart from the fact both bands have female singers.
Instead ‘Silent City‘ is a bit of a half-hearted attempt at some kind of pop-rock hybrid that never really gets too exciting. It’s slick and well produced, but the vocals are passionless and flat most of the time, while the riffs are churned out frequently but never really hit the spot. Opener ‘DILLIGAF’ is the first – and not the last – time when the vocals really do flatter to deceive. There’s no range at all and it’s all very monotone. There’s no passion and little fire. If you compare yourself to a band like Paramore you need choruses, energy and confidence. Lecarla have none of those qualities.
The opening song is actually symptomatic of the band – musically they’re clearly quite talented but they try far too hard to fit too much in, from metal-esque lead guitar parts to chuggy harder bits, to the closing very soft parts. It’s just one big melting pot of too many influences and it sounds messy and incoherent. The EP follows a similar pattern. ‘Cities In The Sky’ again has slow, fast, rock, metal elements that sound messy, like separate songs chopped together. It’s almost as if the band can’t work out if they want to be Bullet For My Valentine or something like Evanescence.
If Lecarla want to be taken seriously they need to drop the stupid comparison to a band they sound absolutely nothing like and concentrate on writing good songs. Because, at this moment in time, they don’t have too many.