Nottingham based Those Once Loyal release their Debut EP ‘Relentless Cycle’ tomorrow, and we take a listen to see what the guys have up their sleeves in 2023…

Now, from a genre perspective, for us, Those Once Loyal sit on the outskirts of what we normally listen to, on the metallic side of hardcore, but without falling arse over elbow into the metalcore bucket and keeping things heavy, in a completely respectful way this falls in our ‘easy listening’ playlist, with loads of great riffs, energy and passion, but without the desire to go and rip someones face off!

The four tracks kick off with the one and a half melodic intro, lots of fuzz and keyboards to start things off on a gentle meandering path until the title track ‘Relentless Cycle’ kicks in, and it showcases a little bit of everything the band have to offer, intricate guitar work, breakdowns and that hardcore esq vocal delivery that makes you do that ‘face’

Next track up is the money maker and where the band really shine for me, ‘Second Hand Smoke’ was released a fortnight ago with a music video, and it’s been on regular play in the car whilst blasting around the city, the drums on this track are phenomenal, and really feel they lifting the song into something that feels a little bit of an anthem.

The EP closes out with Re-Birth, that feels like it picks up the pace a little, especially at the start as it build that anticipation for the track, and at the other end slows thing right down… Those Once Loyal state ‘This is a Re-birth’ well if this is the direction of travel, keep pushing as this baby needs a full album to see what else the guys have to offer!

The massively enjoyable Relentless Cycle is out Tomorrow 20th January 2023 via BandCamp or all the normal streaming services, go check it out and catch them live if you can!!!!