Single Review: The World Over – Mountains EP

Los Angeles based alternative rock band The World Over have released their latest EP, Mountains. The World Over is led by Tiaday Ball, for trivia fans she’s the granddaughter of the guitar string creator Ernie Ball, who along with Ryan Knecht, Guitar, and Donovan Allen, bass, make up the current line up of The World Over, for this release Melvin Murray of Abandon All Ships stepped into breach to play drums on the Mountains EP.

Mountains is an impressive self released EP of alt rock, it must be said the initial impression of the first track, Traitor, concerned me. It started with a worryingly polished and commercial introduction, but I’m glad to report this is short lived as the track kicks in at the around the one minute mark. Following this is Liberosis, this is a much darker sounding affair, with a much heavier guitar and drumbeat compared to the initial number. The Mountains EP alternates across it’s five tracks between a softer more commercial sound and the slightly darker heavier and ultimately more satisfying style, for me it is those tracks, Liberosis and Invisible, that work best and it’s also these that suit Tiaday Ball’s vocals, which it must be said are stunning, she is able to equally deliver both melody and a hair raising alt rock howl.

The World Over has mainlined the sound that bands like Skunk Anansie pioneered, and they’ve taken it a step further, on the Mountains EP they’ve incorporated some of the heavier end of alt rock into their sound, alongside the post hardcore influences from their debut EP, Rampart District. The production is a little too slick for my tastes, I always feel a band benefits from a few rough edges but this aside I don’t really have any complaints and you can see The World Over going onto much bigger things on the basis of this EP.

The Mountains EP can be streamed and purchased here