The five-song E.P. from Los Angeles band The Unwoken involves themes of time travel, dark political and cultural moments of history, and a path for hope and a better future.
During much of 2018 and part of 2019, the band recorded a five-song EP, Some Lives Matter, at EastWest Studios in Hollywood. It was produced and mixed by Les Camacho (Chris Issak, Stevie Nicks).
The track “Electrical System” jumps right in, conveying the title of the song into the buzzing, almost dueling, guitars that lead the track.
However, the vocals – not sure of the two vocalists, bassist Alex Ramirez and drummer Max Cogert, who is singing – need some fine-tuning. Overall the track has a cinematic rock effect.
As for the vocals, the same is true for “Just To Let You Know” – potentially solid song but the singing misses the mark. There’s strong potential with this song accompanied by a stronger vocal tracking.
My guess is that it’s a different live experience. Ramirez writes about the track: “It’s a blunt statement to the listener that they do not matter in the eyes of the powerful, the ruthless, and those who see humans as disposable.”
The E.P. includes three additional tracks including the slowed-down, more melodic track alt. rocker, “Tin Man.” Here the vocals work better and flow with the song nicely. This may be the standout song on the E.P.
Closing track “Last Fight” and “Some Lives Matter” take on a darker, more metal sound. As these tracks demonstrate, guitarists Chris Alcala and Jonathan Eastly take it to the wall from start to finish on the E.P.
The Unwoken named their EP Some Lives Matter as “a thought-provoking title to set the tone of the music as it pertains to our national discourse and an increasingly dystopian world of “normalizing fascism, children in cages, mass shootings, profiling, and a police state in which some lives matter more than others.”
The bands’ influences are Rage Against The Machine, Queen, Nirvana, and System of a Down. The band held a packed release party last month at the Silverlake Lounge in L.A.
