EarlyRise

One of the really interesting things about doing music reviews in an arena like this is the people you get to interact with. In some forms of music you tend to be limited by geography, or political divides, or cultural limitations. But, in female metal, you seem to meet and get an opportunity to interact with people from nearly everywhere, although I still haven’t talked to a lot of people from Africa, which is a shame since I like a lot of music that comes from that continent. Fortunately, living in Durham, North Carolina as I do, I get to hear some of it since it is the home of North Carolina Central University, one of the finest jazz schools on earth and you tend to get a lot of top musicians with ties to Africa performing at the various venues in the area.
EarlyRise, however, is from Israel, mostly. Vocalist, keyboardist Orly Lari is from Israel. . . and New York, but seems to spend time primarily in Israel, along with fellow band mates Raz Klinghoffer, Itamar Goldwasser and Dima Grossman. This is their first release and it’s a good one, surprisingly for a first effort. It’s a little difficult to get a lot of information about the band, they don’t even have their website up yet and, needless to say, there haven’t been a lot of reviews out about them but expect that to change as people get a chance to hear their work. I can tell you this, there was a scramble to get the assignment to do this review here at SC as several people found out about them all at once and they certainly generated some serious interest. And believe me, we don’t all agree on what we like all the time, there are differences that are distinct for each writer here on staff.

I usually like to get a feel for what artists are saying in their music, that’s why I focus on lyrics. And often, these lyrics will tell us a lot about the band and reflect things that are going on in that part of the world. You can learn a lot by paying attention to what’s being said. And, having grown up in Miami, and spending much of my life on Miami Beach, I’ve known a lot of people from Israel. I recall asking my mother as a kid what those numbers tattooed on people’s arms meant, and being shocked by the answer. So, I would not have been surprised to hear a bit of a political message in the music on What If. Well, Lari commented on their lyrics saying, "there isn't really one general direction or one particular message behind them. Unlike what most people think, life in Israel is actually very similar to life in many other places. Yes, there is of course a difference between Israel and the U.S but like most people our age, we're striving to forge own individual identities, figuring out who we want to become in this world, building relationships and dealing with setbacks and heartaches along the way. Our lives are influenced by many people, places, experiences and myriad choices and possibilities. We write about our personal experiences and emotions, things that anyone from anywhere can relate to. We have no interest in discussing our political views or the situation in the Middle East and we're not trying to send out any messages about those things." Nicely put. But those lyrics are interesting, and tend to be sung with some serious emotion, especially on songs like Leave Me Alone and Shell which are rockers of the highest order.

You’d be hard pressed to identify a "best" song on the CD, there’s a lot of good stuff here. But, Wasteland seems to be high on the list, it certainly is on mine anyway. You get some sterling guitar work, although you can say that about a number of cuts on this production. But you also get a nice, emotion based performance; Lari makes an interesting statement here over some strong background instrumental work. Lyrically, we get:

Everything's ok
You're not the same as everybody else
So stop apologizing
There's nothing wrong with being different
Despite their accusations
You've always proven that you're better

Personally, I rather prefer the songs that make use of the keyboards, piano or otherwise. EarlyRise – 03 – What If is one of these, you get a nice piano intro that leads to the core of the song, and then we switch over to more of a symphonic sound that serves as a background over which the rest of the song flows. This one is a bit of a middle of the road track, not a ballad but not a rocker either, just a nice pace that allows the song to flow nicely in support of the vocals. Of course, this is a matter of personal taste; many will prefer the harder sounds, Face Me for instance, which goes in a number of interesting directions.

I guess I’d also point out that EarlyRise does some outstanding ballads, in fact, these may very well be the best songs on the entire CD. Goodbye is one of these; you get a lush symphonic background, solid piano and a truly beautiful song. Hard to get much better than this one. I don’t know much about the production here, who did it or where but they used some pretty good people wh - Sonic Cathedral - Review by Terry Thompson

Flavored with touches of electronic, EarlyRise’s debut album “What If” is both heavy and melodic, with everything from piano-laiden melancholy songs like “Memories”, to heavy tracks like “Wasteland” which speaks to those different from the norms of society.
Reminiscent of Flyleaf and Evanescence, the lyrics and sound are dark and thought provoking. This is a well-done album.

9/10

Check it out. - The Amityville Pantry

All the way from Israel comes this duo of Raz Klinghoffer and Orly Lari who are desperate for people to hear their music, well that's what Ravenheart is all about, bringing you the best in new music, and there's nothing as exciting as a band like EarlyRise turning up out of the blue. What if you took the world's top selling female fronted bands, Evanescence, Paramore, The Material and Within Temptation, and then blended them together with a terrific production job by Raz? You get something that should sell by the shipload. Added to that not only has Orly a fantastic, powerful, expressive, soaring Amy Lee type voice, she also has the gorgeous mystical looks that are tailor made for magazine covers. What immediately impresses me is the breadth of their musical vision, Raz is a prog standard guitarist who uses just about every guitar sound imaginable, Orli adds piano, synths and strings to mix, and Itamar Goldwasser powers it all along with highly skilled drumming. This creates multi-dimensional soundscapes that lifts them miles above your average one sound fits all alt-rock/metal band. They pack into each and every multi-faceted song a whole album's worth of great ideas, moving gracefully from gentle piano and voice, to mellow reflection, to symphonic grandeur, to driving power to heavy rocking, blurring genre boundaries. This is the sort of album you can listen to time and time again and always find something new. It also makes it impossible to single out tracks, normally albums have two or three tracks of this quality, not thirteen. It is mind boggling that they can produce a début album like this that demonstrates so much maturity, if there is any justice in the world EarlyRise will become Mega with a capital M. Get up early early and head to their Facebook, and the album is available from CD Baby, a rising and shining 9.5/10 (Phil)
- Ravenheart Music - Review by Phil wooldridge