The Sheffield Scenester

Sheffield band The Little Fiends recently recorded their debut EP ‘White Chapel’ at 2Fly studios. These lads have been together for about a year and already have a large following at their live shows, so it was interesting to hear what they have laid down on this EP.

As soon as you press play on first song ‘Dead Man’s Heart’, it hits you right in the face like a train! ‘Have you ever crossed the path of a dead mans heart?’ is the first line belted out by the lead singer. Straight away you can tell that these lads are heavily influenced by the Arctic Monkeys, but the song is enough their own to stand alone and blow you away, a great opening track to start the EP, the only slight disappointment being that the song is only just over one and a half minutes long, none the less, a great, snappy opener.

Second song ‘Redemption’ begins with a guitar riff quite similar to ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ by The Animals, and this riff is carried on through the verses, which builds slowly into quite heavy choruses; this is where some of the interesting bass lines combine with some very clever drum work to give this tune a whole new dimension. ‘Redemption will grab you by the throat’ is the vocal line that catches your attention, and the song plays out with some very good quality guitar riffs. ‘Redemption’ isn’t anywhere near as heavy as ‘Dead Man’s Heart’, and it’s beneficial to the overall writing of the EP that the band show this versatility between the songs.

Third song ‘Depths’ again starts slowly, the lead singer of The Little Fiends does have a vocal style very similar to that of Alex Turner, but he also has a nice quiet gravely tone in his voice which adds to his overall style. ‘Depths’ has more quality in the variation of the music than both of the opening tracks, as it builds slowly to the chorus, but then falls away into an intriguing marching style drum beat which carries all the way through to the end of the song. This is my personal favourite on the EP.

Unfortunately I have to say I was slightly disappointed with the EP’s closing track ‘Bone Collector’, as I personally feel it is just a little too influenced by the Monkeys, it could easily sit on their second album ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’. The guitar part on this song is a little too similar to that of ‘Brianstorm’, and this combined with the vocal style of the track was just a little on the over influenced side for me. However the overall production of the track (and indeed all four songs on the EP) does make me look forward to seeing these boys playing live over the next couple of months. I just hope they can step a little further out of the shadows of their Sheffield elders and hit us more with their own sound with their follow up.

These lads have got a future for sure, as other songs ‘Lorellei’ & ‘Circus of Sins’ which didn’t show up on this EP prove The Little Fiends have already played some great support slots around Sheffield, playing on the same bill as Cut Your Wings at The Harley in January, and newly signed Jackson Caged at the o2 Academy last month, and I don’t think it will be much longer until they are headlining nights like these for themselves. Keep an eye on the bands Facebook and MySpace pages as I’m sure they will be heading out and plying live again soon…..

Words by James Whitworth