New Band of the Week: Within Reach

In sport, it’s common to hear talk of “the next generation of talent” coming through the ranks to continue a club or nation’s success. That kind of chatter isn’t so common in musical circles, but Within Reach are aiming to shape the next generation of heavy music in the UK with an engaging but complex modern metalcore sound they describe as “unhinged, resonant and evolving.”

The band began with schoolkids Louis Hendrich, Bailey Dopson and Theo Welsh – who at that time was in Year 7 (11 to 12 years old) – making covers of their favourite songs on YouTube during the lockdown in 2020. This stoked a fire for the trio to start creating their own music, and they drafted in Kenzie Clague and Cam Gratton on vocals and bass to complete the lineup.

The band have since honed a sound that they believe is quite complex and doesn’t restrict itself to one genre. Our latest taste of this is their debut EP Pariah, which was written in 2022 and mixed by Dan McNally before the band filmed music videos, sorted out promos with media manager Fred Stonell, then released the EP at the start of last month.

Speaking ahead of the EP, the band told us: “The EP has been in the works since the days we made YouTube covers! We’ve worked so long on it and to finally have it finished and announced is really satisfying to see our hard work paying off. We personally believe each track has its own characteristic like its own voice so people can expect variety and their favourite characteristics of modern metalcore with a fresh/new/young twist.”

The EP opens up with an atmospheric intro to In My Eyes, then distant screams over a light guitar. The scream jumps back in to usher in an avalanche of chunky guitar riffs, which give way to a wild verse of intense vocals and guitar harmonics. The pace drops again before jumping into a more melodic chorus with clean vocals supported by lively guitars. Another wild verse drops into heavy guitars setting up another blast of the engaging chorus.

That’s followed by the EP title track Pariah, which is absolutely superb. It opens up with a big bouncy riff that feeds into heavy vocals supported by incessantly pounding drums, guitars and a distant synth that continues through an engaging chorus. The opening riff takes over and gives way to another pounding verse, then a pulsing riff and searing synth set up another melodic chorus. That drops into piercing synths giving way to intense screams and pounding drums and guitars which continue into a much darker section. That tees up a final blast of the chorus before a cheeky little guitar solo leads an energetic conclusion. Check it out in the video here.

Next up, Plead opens with a delicious guitar lick that drops into heavy vocals, which give way to fast-paced clean vocals and a big melodic chorus. The screams return before big chugging guitar chords support whispery vocals and drop into cool chords and harmonics, before a flying guitar solo driven by heavy drums. Check it out in the video here:

The first track we heard from Within Reach was the EP’s fourth song Shadows, which may well be our favourite. It opens up with a cool effects-ridden flitting riff that drops into a vicious scream and chugging guitar chords, which give way to a heavy verse. That feeds into a delicious chorus that ends with deliciously intense screams and chunky guitars that you can’t help but bounce along to. The second chorus gives way to a return of the cool opening high-pitched riff then big technical guitar riffs and huge guttural screams, which tee up a final blast of the chorus.

On the track, the band told us: “The reception has been pretty positive overall but along with releasing the single we also announced the EP, which got people pretty excited from what we saw. For someone who hasn’t listened to the track yet, they should expect an overall high energy track kind of like a punch to the face through your headphones, with some of our heaviest sections and one of our biggest choruses.” Check the track out in the video here:

The EP closes out with Blindfolded, which opens up with a cool spinning synth sound and building guitars that blast into chunky chords. Big guitars take over, supporting huge screamed vocals before the spinning synth returns as it builds towards an engaging chorus. Crushing guitars jump in with big guttural vocals then a laid-back guitar lick before dropping into a cool, slightly more laid-back section supporting more throaty vocals. The pace suddenly drops before jumping into a brief reprise of the chorus, then big chunky chords tee up a superb conclusion of engaging clean vocals, intense screams and huge instrumentals.

Within Reach draw influence from the likes of Slipknot, Bullet For My Valentine and A Day To Remember as well as While She Sleeps, Bury Tomorrow, Bring Me The Horizon and Architects who “remind us of our culture and where we came from.”

And on what inspires them to write music, they told us: “Within Reach are just the same as everyone else, we are fans! We all love music and metalcore so evidently wanted to do what our heroes and favourite bands did. But over time, we have realised that writing music can be very therapeutic in a way as we feel it can explain things better than words ever will. Like we can be feeling a certain feeling and write a song to then make the listener feel that feeling we originally had. And we just think writing music can unite people, which is something that motivates us more to keep going.”

The band are already hard at work writing new music and are always aiming to improve as musicians and songwriters so their sound is ever-evolving. They have one big announcement before the end of the year, which they can’t tell us about just yet but promise “people are going to be excited about it because we for sure are.”

We think it’s safe to say the future of metalcore is in good hands with the young and exciting Within Reach. Their debut EP Pariah is superb and offers a sophisticated level of variety, from vicious vocals and crushing riffs and drums to moments of delicious melody, so we’re excited to see what more the band have to offer in the future.

And the band adds: “For those who don’t know, Within Reach are just a bunch of young teenagers with a love for music. We are using everything we have got to make it work, we are highly ambitious and have no plan backing down anytime soon. We might go a slightly different direction after the EP but will still stick to our roots but evolve.”

You can follow Within Reach on Instagram and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube Music and YouTube.