Not Many Experts

Anybody looking for a quick headline these days will automatically go for the constantly boring ‘story’ that ‘guitar music is dead’. This, in case you hadn’t already noticed, is a slightly ridiculous assertion, not just because it’s untrue, but because it’s irrelevant; if guitar music did die, but exciting, inventive music remained, what exactly would be the problem? But there is an underlying truth that much guitar music has become synonymous with mediocrity and regression, an unfortunate generalisation that has arisen probably because of The Enemy’s continued use of the guitars. But that’s not to say that there aren’t people making innovative guitar music, that is, music that borrows heavily from the past but has its own unique character. This is exactly what South Wales based band The Vestals are doing.

The nostalgic energy of ‘Perfect Pain’ is all that we’ve been allowed to hear so far, but it’s more than enough to start getting excited about, with its emotive vocals and battering drums. There’s no wheel being reinvented, but there’s no need to keep reinventing it when slightly original music like this, when packed with personality,  can be so infectious. That said, one single is far too little to start judging a band on, so I am prepared to put in the hard work and go and see them in Bristol tonight. I’ll let you know how the rest of the material sounds. If they’ve any more powerful indie-anthems in the waiting like ‘Perfect Pain’ knocking around, expect the front page of a magazine to claim that they have saved guitar music from its already-announced death within months.

You can download ‘Perfect Pain’ from The Vestals’ facebook.