I was so glad to hear the debut EP from Florida's Lucid Fly recently. In the midst of emo-this and hardcore that, this straight-ahead rock swept in and won my ears over instantly. They write really melodic songs that are on the edge of heavy-rock yet retain a listen-ability factory that keeps you playing them over and over.Besides the strong songs, the main strength of the band is the excellent voice of singer Nikki Layne. One minute she is crooning dreamily and then she's spitting it out with a confident swagger. Doug Mecca is the other mainstay, having formed the band with Layne. Bassist Justin Thalgott and drummer Derrick Haggerty round out the group.
The first cut of the EP, "No Sleep", jumps out of the gate with an aggressive guitar line. The forceful verses bring you to an awesome chorus made great by Layne's dramatic vocals. "Splinter" is another winner with an equally super chorus. The jewel of the set is "Blind", an absolute monster of a track. The rest of the songs are all way above average, particularly "11th Hour" which is wicked.
The production is really clean on this record. Everything has a great clear, live sound and that helps show off Ms. Layne. If there is one drawback to the record, it's that there isn't a lot of diversity in the material. There is a bit of "same-ness" throughout. However when you have material this strong, it's not the kiss of death. Take the keyboards out of Evanescence and replace them with a rockier sound and you have Lucid Fly, a band with a scary amount of potential.
