Self released – March 6, 2021
Nice melodic hardcore… that we’ve heard before
Stay Awake is a band consisting of four expats from Scotland, England, the Philipines and Australia, all living in Bangkok, Thailand. They have self-released their second EP Portraits in March of this year and, since then, it’s found its way on the desk of the review team here at Thats Good Enough For Me.
The six songs on the EP evoke the image of a man navigating through the world alone, and asking everybody to rise up against a society where there is no place for black sheep. The lyrics from the song “Inroads” pretty much sum it up: “I choose the path I walk (walk alone) Every step is closer to my goal. My sole wearing thin“.
Stay Awake draws it sounds from bands like Rise Against, Strike Anywhere, and Boysetsfire. Singer John’s voice reminds me a lot of Antillectual, both in sound and delivery. However, this similarity to other bands is where Stay Awake falls a bit short. Originality doesn’t always mean good, and unoriginality doesn’t always mean bad, and these six songs are not something totally new. They’re not something we have never heard before. The band really has a knack for writing good songs and fans of the aforementioned bands should really check both of Stay Awake’s EPs out. I for one, hope that on their next release the band will develop their own sound and identity a bit more.
Quirijn’s primary focus for TGEFM is on album reviews and band interviews. When he’s not writing for the site, he can be found mixing sound at Fiction Studio, mixing up beats for as one part of hip-hop duo Breekpunt, or playing guitar for punk quartet Ink Bomb.