Guitarist Shawn Brogan knows his way around catchy guitar riffs, evidenced in music he’s played with the bands Animal Sounds, The Sideways and Brogan’s own solo project Beigee. The Rochester musician’s newest venture is the quartet Evergold, a twist on the male-dominated emo of 25 years ago. The band’s introductory EP “Rip Out the Wires,” released on September 4, is both nostalgic and fresh.
Evergold is led by Laura Wolanin, whose tuneful vocals are a stabilizing presence, soaring at times over the frenetic rock music playing underneath — welcome characteristics for fans of her former band Mostly Ghosts. Brogan’s rhythmically dizzying hook that opens “Seasonal Depression” ushers in Wolanin’s self-assured voice as she sings about the pall another person can cast on one’s life.
It would be easy to simply label Evergold’s sound as emo, but that would be reductive and misleading. Stylistic nuances include the ecstatic, ‘90s-style guitar solo in the aforementioned song, the post-hardcore sludge of “Metabolize” and the unrelenting forward motion in the full-blown metal of “Holy Ghost.”
The title track, which closes the EP, is a different thing entirely. What starts out as a banjo-inflected folk ballad morphs into guitar-crunching pop and back again. If there is a recurring lyrical theme in this four-song set, it’s the cathartic restart to be found in a cleansing fire. Much like the music itself, Wolanin’s words contain a volatility that can erupt at any moment.
As an initial offering, it would have been enough if “Rip Out the Wires” merely contained a few inspired moments hinting at the cohesion to come. But the EP reveals a band that’s already polished its sound and found its identity — one that feels easy to pin down at first, but is more mercurial than first meets the ear.
