Hold the Fight’s debut mini album – ‘With a Breath and a Hope’ offers the listener a unique take on bands such as Funeral for a Friend. Where Funerals guitar are loaded up with distortion however, ‘Hold the Fight’ have adopted a more ‘twangy’ (for want of a better word) indie-centric guitar tone. That’s not to say Hold the Fight sound like the Wombats, they’ve just taken a fresh look at an, admittedly, rather tired genre.
It is refreshing to hear a band not rely on their amps to get across the aggression of their music – instead they adopt an approach similar to Rage Against the Machine – minimal amounts of distortion or effects meaning that it’s not heavy in a conventional sense – Hold the Fight instead attack their instruments whilst harnessing the power of their excellent song-writing to record a punchy and promising mini-album. Winding guitar work sits comfortably underneath some really great vocal lines, additionally, every single song remaining resolutely under 3 minutes long meaning that ‘With a Breath and a Hope’ doesn’t overstay its welcome.
However, ‘With a Breath and a Hope’ is far from flawless – the song writing often repeats the same song structures and ideas – meaning that it can sometimes feel one dimensional. ‘Hold the Fight’ have had one really great idea, but once you get used to the guitar tone and have become familiar with the vocal hooks there’s not really that much that will hold your attention.
Despite this ‘With a Breath and a Hope’ represents a promising start for Hold the Fight and, with elements from bands as diverse as Funeral for a Friend, Rage Against the Machine and The Kinks they’ve definitely got something interesting going. It will be interesting to hear a full-length LP when they’ve discovered a bit more diversity in their song-writing.
