Reviewed by David Pearce

Artist: Playgrounded
Album: Athens Ep
Label: Casket Music/Copro Records (UK)
Year: November 19th 2012

Track Listing

1. Athens
2. Seesaw Snap
3. Western Sun
4. Morning Smoke
5. For A Moment

Playgrounded is a rock/metal band formed in Chania in 2007, by Odisseas and Orestis Zafeiriou and Michael Kotsirakis. Their line-up was solidified in 2010 with the additions of Stavros Markonis (Enstro) and Vasilis Podaras (George? ontrafouris Baby Trio). They are currently based in both Athens and Crete. After a series of live gigs with such acts as Rotting Christ and Archive’s Craig Walker, Playgrounded was chosen by Anathema to open their headline show in Crete and soon focused on recording their first album, “Athens”. Produced by Playgrounded and George Alamaras “Athens” is a testimony of a country and its youth in crisis. It is sketches of a new balance between metal and electronica driven by endless talks on the dead ends of modern Greece. Inviting the listener into the deepest details of their soundscapes Playgrounded enlisted Grammy Award winning Ted Jensen (Muse, Dream Theater, Deftones) to master “Athens”, set to be released worldwide this on November 19 by Casket Music/Copro Records (UK).

The Ep starts with the title song Athens from the start I can hear how the music has been influenced by different bands. It is a really good strong song to start off the Ep it has a lot of technical aspects on the song from the keyboards right through the band it reminds me of Tool, Mastodon in the way the song sounds good song. The Second and Third song are Seesaw Snap and Western Sun both of these songs are technically very well done the vocals are have their own unique style which goes very well with the style of the music. The guitar work is really good and the keyboards give the songs a different dimension. The Fourth song is Morning Smoke starts off with a good guitar riff which starts off low then builds up gradually the lyrics come in low but with purpose. Again this song has been done really well it has some good technical pieces in it with different sounds from the keyboards which in turn compliments the guitars, drums and vocals. The final song on the Ep is For A Moment is again really hit the spot for me it has some sublime touches of brilliance in there with some perfectly blended sounds together with the vocals and guitars make this a cracking end to the album.

Overall

It is a real solid progressive rock début album if you like bands like Tool, Mastodon then you will like these. Their blend of music is technically spot on and the range of perfectly blended sounds is a real treat for the progressive rock fan out there you can tell they take pride in what they do. As this is there début album I think they have out done themselves it is a cracking album and I think if they can produce more of the same I am sure they will go far.

7 / 10

Members

Odisseas Zafeiriou – Bass
Orestis Zafeiriou – Keyboards
Michael Kotsirakis – Guitars
Stavros Markonis – Vocals
Vasilis Podaras – Drums

Contact info

Website

http://playgrounded.net/
http://www.myspace.com/playgroundedband
http://www.twitter.com/playgrounded
http://www.youtube.com/user/playgroundedtv
http://www.facebook.com/playgrounded

Press contact

contact@playgrounded.net