Hold Your Fire!  - High Fives And Fist Pumps

  From the humorous album cover and the opening gaming intro to their debut album High Fives And Fist Pumps, one knows Channel Island band Hold Your Fire! will make the following trip through their sound a fun one as they deliver twelve tracks of melodic punk rock that plays proud and loud. The Jersey quintet have been making waves on the island and beyond since 2009, coming 4^th out of 12,000 bands in Surface Festival 2010 being one of the notable points in their journey to this point. Now they release their debut album to place another marker in their musical quest.

    Hold Your Fire! fill their songs with big riffs and soaring harmonies soaked in plenty of vibrant energy. They do not overdo the attitude especially compared to other punk bands but there is a compulsive infectious tone to them that will stand them in good stead as they evolve. They stand firmly in the camp of the likes of Breaking The Day, Story Of The Year, and Rise Against though at the moment stand back in the aggression area but certainly bring a strong melodic flow that the others find hard to rival at times.  

     High Fives And Fist Pumps on the whole is impressively consistent for a debut album and shows great promise for the band in the future. Tracks like Forget Those Days, Ambulance, and Don’t Wait Up all stand tall with great punk urgency and directness. The eager guitars of James Day andDan Allman strike hard and fast creating great moments within songs twisting them into something that makes every song worth investigating. The drums too of Chris Reed add extra dimension to the songs, his driving power keeping each track surging into the ear. It is the bass of Chris Day though that stands out more often than not, his delivery of memorable riffs with their deep muscular tones are the kind that stays in the ear long after a song departs.  

     When the album reaches Down The Barrel it takes another elevated turn in quality. The track is destined for the classic tag with many, the driving pulse within it taking no prisoners and clearing the way for the band to play at their very best. The song has a very distinct feel of CIV about it musically and vocally and it is hard to give it a bigger compliment.

      As mentioned High Fives And Fist Pumps is efficiently consistent but there are a few moments where things do not match the strong overall quality of the release. Let me Down with a random feel about it as if things do not fit together, and Brothers which despite the great bass burst and riff opening feels like a tentative demo rather than a finished song, just do not fit easily in the album. The other criticism that could be levelled at it is production. Vocalist James Pallot has not been mentioned yet and throughout he does a great job but the production on his vocals is at times unkind to say the least and gives moments where he is at odds with the music behind him. He is a good vocalist and deserved better. It would be interesting to know if production was done by different people as mostly it appreciates and showsPallot , the backing vocals and music off well but at other times it leaves him especially in no man’s land.

     The bottom line though despite the small complaints is that High Fives And Fist Pumps is a good strong first album and a great introduction to a band that should move onto greater things as they gain more exposure, surely a guarantee with this release. Hold Your Fire! creates good punk music with fun and passion, something others in the genre have forgotten how to do. If they retain that for the times ahead there is no reason they will not be the influence for many others.http://www.holdyourfire.co.uk