Ryan Holmes // 'The Flame' & 'My Battle' [Review]

Song: 'The Flame' & 'My Battle'

Band: Ryan Holmes

Release: Conflicts

Area: Newcastle, Australia

Date of release: September 2017

Genre: Hard Rock/Metal

Reviewer: Nicholas Rickard

Record Label: Independant

For Fans Of: Black Label Society, Metallica & Down

Ryan Holmes started recording metal covers back in April 2016 on his YouTube channel ‘Jake Ryder’. He naturally started writing original music which lead to his debut release ‘Conflicts’ in late 2017.

This was my first time listening to Ryan and I’ll be honest, this style of music is not something I find blaring out my speakers on regular basis, but I did find certain aspects of these songs enjoyable.

Ryan combined his two songs ‘The Flame’ & ‘My Battle’, and posted them on YouTube as these tracks are meant to be played together. The first song opens with Ryan wooing us on his acoustic guitar playing a Spanish/folk style progression whilst building up to a heavy blues riff for the second song. The vocals in ‘My Flame’ reminded me of the story telling style of Bob Dylan. This peaked my interest but I felt it was lost in ‘My Battle’. The vocals didn’t really engage me in this song, probably because of my music taste. I was hoping for a catchy hook in the chorus that would get me singing along. Ryan really shined on the guitars, showing his skill playing technical riffs and melodic solos. His guitar work was definitely the strength on both tracks. If Ryan continues to develop his craft and strengthen his vocals, I could see him becoming a similar artist to Matt Heafy of Trivium.

Vocals: 6/10

Guitars: 7/10

Bass: 6/10

Drums: 6/10

Lyrics: 7/10

Songwriting: 6/10

Complexity: 7/10

Replay-ability: 7/10

Mixing: 6/10

Production: 6/10

Overall: 64/100

Personal Enjoyment: 7/10

#RyanHolmes #BobDylan #Trivium