Damien Done is a brand new project from Damien Moyal (Shai Hulud, Culture, Morning Again, As Friends Rust) that is currently gearing up to simultaneously release two offerings, a 7″ EP and an album entitled Stay Black, which is the one we’ve decided to look at in a little more detail.
Stay Black is an interesting blend of genres, with acoustic, punk and rock’n’roll all taking the forefront for the release, and it subsequently results in a more engaging listen as it has a great unique edge to it. You can hear each individual style in the performance, both vocally and musically, and it all just works really well.
One of the highlights of the EP comes in one of the middle tracks The /new Cleavage. The vocal performance on this one is perhaps the strongest on the EP, particularly in the early section where there’s a lot of passion and emotion behind the delivery – possibly because when there’s only an acoustic guitar and vocals, there’s nowhere you can really hide and the voice really has to carry the music in order to leave an impression. Additionally, the electric part in the latter half of the track where the vocals follow the same melody as the opening verse really packs a punch!
Stay Black is a great little album, and shows a lot of promise and potential – it’s an accessible album that will appeal to music fans from all walks of life, and I look forward to seeing what will come next from the project.
8/10
