Joshua Hansen is a musician from Alberta, Canada who recently released Conquer. He has only been making it for about five years which in my opinion isn’t very long. The artist is off to a solid start with this release. Hansen mentions: “I wrote this EP, more specifically, each song with how I've been personally influenced by events of the last couple years; loss and grieving, especially with obstacles such as the Pandemic, but more so overcoming these troubles.”
The artist seems to be most influenced by pop punk artists like Thrice, Sick Puppies and Relient K. You can hear some of the pop punk sound on the first song entitled “Missing Love.” The song starts with guitar and vocals but in a matter of seconds bass and drums are added to the mix. It’s a pretty straightforward groove revolving around 4/4 time, minor and major chords and some solid lead guitar. The vocals were well delivered and Hansen is able to present a number of memorable melodies. Up next is “Trauma” which is a heavier song in general. I was reminded more of bands like Tool but still reminded of a number of pop punk bands. Hansen is more or less lamenting about being stuck in his head and trying to fight his way through the pain. I felt like the song was about salvation. There are a number of solid builds. “Absolutes in Question” starts with an Alan Watts sample that is constantly sampled in music. This song is a slow burn. The guitars are clean and silky with a steady beat. It reminded me of Mogai at that moment. Towards the end of the song it explodes with distortion. “Witness” is the highlight on the EP. Hansen sings about how everyone has a burden too bad.The vocals are heartfelt but also lament about life. On that note these were definitely the catchiest vocal melodies on the EP. As an engineer myself I would say my main critique was how lo-fi the recording is. There’s too many issues to list here but I would encourage the artist to either work with engineers or learn about some basics with tools like EQ and compression which could help create a solid mix. The song felt a bit piecemeal but that’s ok with an artist who is just starting out. I think this is a solid start and shows some potential with these songs. Hopefully, there’s more to come and I look forward to hearing how the artist evolves.
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