Veda

This EP is a tasty appetizer to Veda’s upcoming full-length, slated for release this summer, after the young four-piece spends part of the spring on tour with Copeland, Acceptance and Lovedrug — a bill that presents an ascending hierarchy of minor-chord-slinging sex appeal. Indeed, the boys in Veda are going to have to watch out that their tousle-headed tourmates don’t try to poach singer Kristen May, whose epic voice could send Muse’s Matt Bellamy into ecstatic catatonia. But even though May’s vocals help Veda’s live shows achieve the grandeur of a crumbling skyscraper, her singing is not the driving force on this recording. Every moment of This Broken City shudders with instrumental ferocity, thanks largely to Brian Little’s inspired fretwork. May’s vocals, however, tend to stay on Earth only long enough to get the tune going before rocketing into the emosphere with melody-eschewing, monotonous bravado. When Veda starts experimenting with different tempos and major keys, May and her boys may achieve something like the mystical depth their band name implies.