A Review of After Eight – The Reach EP

After Eight Announce Debut EP ‘The Reach’

It started as a farewell. Guitarist Jelle van der Sar was leaving his childhood home in early 2023, and he and vocalist-guitarist Sonja Wilhart decided to mark the moment with a garage concert: mostly covers, a couple of originals. The audience's reaction to those originals changed everything. Within months, drummer Joram van Noort had rejoined Sonja after years apart. Bassist Sako Milikian followed. Lead guitarist Tim Grootscholten, recommended by Sako, completed the lineup. From a going-away party, After Eight had arrived.

The Reach, their debut EP recorded at Raiko Records with Stijn Donders, distils two years of writing and development into five tracks that demonstrate why Dutch alternative indie rock is currently producing some of the most emotionally intelligent guitar music in Europe. The band's range of reference, Radiohead, Deftones, Black Country New Road, Big Thief, Nothing But Thieves, does not produce an imitative sound but an exploratory one: loud and energetic when the material demands it, fragile and intimate when it does not, the two modes inhabiting the same songs without compromise in either direction.

Each track occupies its own distinct emotional geography. 'Dress And A Veil' grieves an imagined future that will never arrive, the anger of letting go of a life built in the head rather than the hands. 'Blinded' holds the specific discomfort of someone good who is not the person you are meant to be with. 'All By Myself (So Quiet)' refuses to resolve the tension between wanting connection and finding safety in solitude, which is the most courageous thing about it. 'Running Just To Hide' is pure escapism with no apology. 'The Medicine You Take' closes on the difficult choice of someone else's wellbeing over your own, alongside the lingering fear that love freely given may not be freely meant.

"The things that touch you most are also the things most capable of breaking you," the band says. The Reach finds beauty in that vulnerability with complete musical conviction.

Find After Eight:

Spotify: After Eight on Spotify

YouTube: After Eight on YouTube

Instagram: @aftereightband on Instagram

TikTok: @aftereightband on TikTok

Website: aftereightofficial.com