Furious indie-rockers find refinement.

 

A change of musical direction is never an easy thing for an artist to pull off. In the instances where the shift is well executed, it can risk alienation of an established audience. It’s often too risky for an artist to even consider, leading to a stagnation of sound that bores until the end.

From the offset, The Assist‘s newest single Love is worlds apart from their last release. An almost cinematic opening lays the explosive groundwork for a musical shift, one which sees their sound develop into something much more fully formed: if there were fears before that the band sometimes teetered on the verge of being dismissed as “just another indie-rock band“, those fears are dispelled now.

Layers of fascinating and artistically elegant sounds overlap underneath the ever-familiar blistering guitars, with drums ferociously pushing forward and a solid bass groove underpinning everything. While the forefront hits you hard, the biggest point of intrigue in the whole track is lying hidden deeper in the mix. A swirl of backing vocal hook build a choir-like wall behind the indie sound, which instantly sounds bigger as a result.

It’s not a huge step away from what The Assist are known for, but it’s definitely a sudden – and quite drastic – refinement. This new sound could be what elevates the band to new heights and assists them into bigger venues. Eyes forward to 2016!