Self-produced, self-engineered, and surprisingly unsigned, Drop Toe Hold is a unique five-piece band from New Jersey with a revolutionary new sound. Fresh from a creative fervour, the collective of Jason Rahn, Kyle Logan, James Marshall, Sean Sullivan, and James Regan have strived to be more than just a band, building a complete artistic vision encompassing music, photography, and film. It’s an ambitious task, made all the more impressive by the band’s mission to release a new song and video every month, building a twelve-part series that will run from August 2019 to August 2020.
Proving they're a band of drive and focus, each of the twelve songs and accompanying videos that Drop Toe Hold plan to release are based on a character created by Christine Hordeman, intertwining the scenes, samples, and songs to create a short horror movie. The first of it’s kind, ‘Anxious Friend’ is a four-minute epic of cataclysmic guitar chords, heavy, unrelenting percussion, and calling vocals that create a dark, sonic sound.
Ringing with a layered industrial edge, ‘Anxious Friend’ is a unique slice of brooding, alt. rock that is spiked with heavier elements of progressive metal brilliance. Glistening with a minimalist production style that captures the raw, shifting energy of the track, there is an unstoppable driving melody to ‘Anxious Friend’ that constantly pushes the track forward, forging a devastating arrangement of destructive instrumentals and surprisingly harmonic vocals.
More than just a patchwork of raw power and sonic alchemy, Drop Toe Hold have been able to bring the best of both worlds together, creating a shifting sound of horror cinematics, textured anthemics, and utterly diabolical sounds.
As an individual track, ‘Anxious Friend’ can be seen as a visceral soundscape of original thoughts and skilled artistry, pushing the boundaries of the band’s progressive rock style with a keen and inspired sound. The real joy though, is that ‘Anxious Friend’ is just the beginning, and the fact that it’s the first of a unique, twelve-part, multi-media series makes it all the more impressive.
You can stream Drop Toe Hold’s ‘Anxious Friend’ on Spotify, as well as Pandora, TIDAL, Napster and more, or grab your very own copy on Apple Music and Amazon. Be sure to follow Drop Toe Hold on their social media pages as well to make sure you catch the next release in their ambitious new series.
Score: 8/10
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