Haliwel are a fivesome from Madison, Wisconsin and From The Inside is their first, self-produced album. The band created everything themselves, art work, website, videos, etc.

Haliwel play hard rock with great rhythms, melodies and plenty of bass. On their facebook page they liken some of their sound to Black Stone Cherry, don’t sell yourselves cheap guys, Haliwel’s sound is much preferable to BSC’s, much more variety in the drumming style to start with and far more variety in the music altogether.

Reading Haliwel describe themselves as mainstream I was not expecting such a great sound, really heavy rock in some tracks with a sound occasionally veering towards Killswitch Engage, without the shouts. The vocal style of Justin Schmitz suits the music well, especially in track seven, ‘In The End’, where the sound is enhanced with slightly off key harmonies.

‘This Far’ and ‘Once Had It All’ are slower tracks with ‘Once Had It All’ clocking up over six and a half minutes. ‘Original Sin’ features a great guitar led mid-section expertly played, very enjoyable. Best tracks on the album for me were ‘In The End’ and ‘Hollow Son’ which has an slower acoustic start leading to powerful riffs and great melodic passages.

This album took me by surprise, I really shouldn’t read the bumph before listening, a great debut from a band we will hopefully hear more from in the future.