In the words of Shift themselves...."After appearing from nowhere, having never played a live show, Shift burst onto the scene determined to do things their way.....regardless of the consequences."

The band's plan was to make music for music's sake and to build a following primarily through the use of media and the internet by releasing four EPs in quick succession whilst making them available for free to anyone who wanted them...one year down the line and (still in Shift's own words) thousands of fans later, Shift have released the second EP in the series entitled 'Watch It Burn', the follow up to debut offering 'Faceless'.

'Stand Against' opens this collection, banging it up in a heavier metal vein complete with growling, curdling, gravel-like vocal sounds and a middle eight section that to me is reminiscent of Spinal Tap's 'Jazz Odyssey' - make of that what you will.

'Into The Whites Of Your Eyes' continues with the flowing metal with time changes cropping up at various intervals, while mellowness and peaceful tranquility introduces us to 'The March', an almost electro experimental '70s thang. Title track 'Watch It Burn' seems just to go round in circles withoutt actually reaching its metal location at all. 'On The Brink' again never seems to want to come out and shine but instead is more than happy to remain stuck in the musical shadows.

It must be said though that this opus is the work of the almost one man band Rob Lambert who's responsibility is vocals/guitar/programming and who is ably abetted by drummer Kori Barnett. 'Water On The Sun' again mixes metal and piano and throws in some off the cuff moments to boot. 'The 2 Minute Hate', which takes its subject matter from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, will satisfy to a certain extent and this may be the best tune so far, in my opinion anyhows.

This is classed as an EP but with nine songs it's more of a mini- album really, although the last two tracks are cover versions; XTC's 'Dear God' and Anthrax's 'In My World', for me being a not overly fanatical covers kinda guy, don't really work too well.....but whatever way this release goes......Watch It Burn.............

www.shiftband.net